4 weeks ago

There’s a lot I appreciated about this interview: submission, obedience, and surrender. Yet the interview strikes me as individualistic. Never in the interview was the role of the church mentioned. Isn’t our story supposed to be wrapped up in God’s story, the work He is doing through His People in the world? And if so, then the church and its input should be central to “finding God’s will for my life.” A conservative Mennonite bishop commented to me recently that more and more people are removing themselves from the lot due to “not feeling called.” These facts seem to be stemming from individualism rather than gelassenheit. A second concern is if you buy wholesale into the specific plan for God’s life idea is what to do with areas where God redeemed man’s sinful choices. If God has one plan for an individual, let’s say an victim of child abuse, who in their adulthood is a very effective counselor to other child abuse victims, was it God’s will that they be abused to prepare them for the next step in their life? No. A third issue I’d raise. What to do with the young man who sincerely prays, fasts, feels peace, and asks a young lady for a date. She agonizes, “How do I know this is God’s will?” She declines, and now the young man is in crisis. Is something wrong with me? Rather than the specific will versus smorgasbord approach, I’d frame finding God’s will as an interaction of a fully sovereign God and a fully free human. Yes, a God who gives specific direction at times, but a God who allows men to make real choices. “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us….”. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Again, I see my views as a Venn diagram with a good bit of overlap with Rick Rhodes. Thank you for your work.