What does "God's will" mean to you? I'm really confused about this. Is everything that happens God's will? Some people seem to think so. Statements like "it was meant to be" or "it was God's will" or "everything happens for a reason" or "there are no coincidences" seem to indicate that all things are God's will, good and bad things. Is it God's will that a woman dies of cancer and has to leave her two young children? Is it God's will that a sniper shoots up a bunch of kids on a schoolyard? I somehow think not. When we say "it was/wasn't God's will" then are we talking more about things like not getting a certain job or having another baby?

A close friend of mine was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder...her body was attacking her muscles and breaking down the muscle tissue..pretty serious, but treatable and caught in time. We talked a lot about why this happened. Did God want her to be sick? We didn't think so. Was it God's will that she be sick? We didn't think so. Then I came upon something in my reading that said that even though God didn't cause (is that different than *will*?) her to be sick, he could certainly *use* that experience as a way to draw her closer to him. Maybe all experiences (good and bad) have that possiblity, even if God doesn't will them.

So, what IS God's will? The words are thrown around so much that it seems to be the easy way to explain everything that happens. But I don't think it's that simple. And if I'm to "do God's will" or "thy will be done" what is the message there? How do I know what God's will IS for me?

All I've got figured out is that it's God's will for ME to be living right now, being me and nobody else, accepting God's love for me and all of creation, and loving God back.

What do you think?

Hello Anne....

What a timely topic for me at the moment. In the midst of trying to discern that for myself right now. If anyone out there has an easy way, let me know.

No I don't think it is God's will that we suffer, that people are murdered, that babies are left in trash cans... but I do believe that God can take these tragedies and bring some good out of them.... maybe better laws, someone devoting their life to a cure... whatever.

"All I've got figured out is that it's God's will for ME to be living right now, being me and nobody else, accepting God's love for me and all of creation, and loving God back."

I think that is pretty much God's will for each one of us.... that we live each day to its fullest as ourselves - who he created us to be, loving and allowing ourselves to be loved.

It sounds like a rather easy, pat answer but the living of it isn't quite so simple.... because we aren't always all that cooperative....

I know that God does not want me to be sick... and yet I sit here munching my roast beef sandwich and drinking my milkshake. Can I blame the extra pound or two on Him? So how can he turn this into good? Maybe when I am trudging down the road in this infernal heat and humidity trying to walk it off, someone will see me on their way to McDonalds and turn around and go home and fix a salad.. who knows. A rather simplistic example but all of these calories are fogging my brain.

Anyhow, I do think you answered your own question. Anyone else out there agree?

Peace,
Wanda

My life as it is, the only teacher.

The place you stand is holy ground.

Your life as it is, is the only place where God can be found.

Nobody has as yet found the infallible method to discern God's will, not even the mystics who devoted their whole lives to it. But we learn to wait on God, preparing the ground to the best of our ability, listen as best as we can, and do what we think God is telling us with the humility that we could well be wrong in discerning His will because everything comes to us with our personal distortions. On this side of eternity I believe that is as far as we can get.

Why me? Why this? That is an age old question. Read Job in the Old Testament. I don't know of anyone who has found the perfect answer to that one.

I'm told that the new book by Ram Dass 'Still here..' is fantastic, it supposed describes his experience with illness. Stephen Levine in his book has supposedly described good meditations for dealing with illness too.

That was my two cents worth.

Suggested reading:

1. Ken Wilber, Grace and Grit

2. Ram Dass, Still Here : Embracing Aging,
Changing and Dying

3. Stephen Levine, Healing into Life and Death

4. Susan Jeffers, Embracing Uncertainty

quote:

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

above quote by it Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude"

The fancy word that is most often used in connection with discussions of God's will (outside of the context of Ignatian discernment) is theodicy and it involves our struggle with meaning in the face of evil and suffering, it asks how these difficult realities could exist if God is good.

The Book of Job reveals the world to be unjust and suggests that God does not simply reward good and punish evil and that's all there is to that. Jesus came and the question was put to him several times: Why did this tower fall on these people? Why can Herod persecute good people? Why was she sick? Why did he die? Was it something they or their parents had done? Jesus said: "By no means". That's basically the same message we got from Job. Jesus did not go on to explain evil and suffering but left it shrouded in mystery.

It has thus been said that any good theodicy contains an element of mystery. We are immersed in uncertainty. At subatomic levels there is indeterminacy. At cosmic levels we are limited by the speed of light. Mystery perdures.

What do we do in the face of suffering, of others' or of our own? We are not so impertinent or insensitive such that we offer easy answers like Job's friends. We don't bring theology to wakes or funerals or bereavement groups. We sit with the suffering. We bring an abiding presence. We bring solidarity and compassion and an imperfect understanding, but just enough understanding to make another feel wholly accepted and partially understood.

We companion with them in a redemptive listening mode and somehow, that is all that ultimately will be required for healing and wholeness. We have not "fixed" anything by explaining it but rather have ministered a consolation which heals in a manner that defies our reason. On the journey toward healing we have hoped and don't know why and we have believed without any good reasons and on this road, this way of the Cross, we have found love, and it then seems like it is a love that we never could have known any other way, in an encounter we could never imagine having happened under any other circumstances. Then, we theologize it best we can even while the heart has reasons that theology will never translate.

That's why the Incarnation resonates with our human spirit. It was one unfathomable act of redemptive listening by a God who didn't offer any easy answers but abided with us, companioned us, and brought us to healing and wholeness merely by becoming one of us and saying, therefore:"I truly understand. I'm here. I'm with you."

God is with us. Emmanuel.

Go now and, like Him, be with another. Bring them food. Bring them a pillow or blanket or coat or sweater. Or go empty handed, even if you feel stripped, beaten, naked, abandoned, faithless, hopeless, joyless, sorrowful. Our Father will take care of the rest. He will be the Unsolved Remainder and will transform the situation even as we can't see how. Therefore will I trust Him always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for She is ever with me, and They will never leave me to face my perils alone.

pax tibi,
jb

p.s. Can you see how I am not putting down theology but suggesting that it is a reflection and processing of an experience? The experience must come first. This has implications for incorporating more prayer and evangelical sharing/ministry in catechesis, at every step of the way. Do some heartwork. Do some headwork. And so forth.

JB the thoughts you shared are so wonderful. You wrote:

'Go now and, like Him, be with another. Bring them food. Bring them a pillow or blanket or coat or sweater. Or go empty handed, even if you feel stripped, beaten, naked, abandoned, faithless, hopeless, joyless, sorrowful. Our Father will take care of the rest. He will be the Unsolved Remainder and will transform the situation even as we can't see how.' [/I]

A well known prayer comes to mind:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

I suppose it dealing with the sufferings of another person, we are going to need that kind of discernment as well - to know when it is right to offer a silent, loving presence as support and when it is time to do the simple loving acts of kindness that the other person desperately needs. Ken Wilber struggled with this, so his book 'Grace and Grit' is a great read on this topic. We all know that it wouldn't have done the traveller in Jesus' parable 'The Good Samaritan' any good if the good samaritan had just offered his loving presence. God will guide us right if we are willing to listen. JB like you pointed out from Merton's writings, our willingness to do God's will is most important.

<<JB like you pointed out from Merton's writings, our willingness to do God's will is most important.>>

SJ, thanks for your sharings. I heard a speaker on one of the religious TV programs talking about "doing God's will." He said that sometimes, when you're unsure of which direction to move, you just have to go ahead put a foot down in front of you, and then put the other foot down in front of you---you have to move in SOME direction----and believe that God will guide those footsteps. Somehow this connects with what you're saying. And it makes sense to me.

Anne