God's Will

What is God’s will?  Does God have a plan for me, for you, and for our world?  And if God has a plan can we know what that plan might be?  Or, is God’s will a flexible will, like my own?  In other words, is God’s will so fixed that it is inflexible and absolute or can God change His/Her mind?  Or is it absurd to try to change the will of God?  If so, why do we bother to pray?  William Stringfellow wrote, “It is the essence of human sin for man to boast of the power to discern what is good and what is evil and thus be like God.”  I suspect that would apply to any attempt by any of us to say that we can discern God’s will.  

Many presume to know the will of God—to know what God wants—to know what God is “for” and what God is “against.”   Where do they get such knowledge?  They get it from the Bible, or so they say, and they usually have a “chapter and verse” to substantiate their claim of knowing “God’s Will.”

Was it God’s will that my father die at the age of 82?  Was it God’s will that a young man die in an automobile accident after a night of drinking?  Was it God’s will that a young woman develop a brain tumor and die?  Is it God’s will that a mother give birth to a mentally or physically disabled child? Is it God’s will that some develop cancer and others do not? So many presume they know when they say, “It is God’s will.”  What kind of a God would that be?   Or they might presume to say, “It was his/her time,” as if God has already determined what will be!  Are we predestined to live the life we live? What kind of God is that?

Is God “against” homosexuality?  Is God only “for” heterosexual people?  Is God “against” this group or that group and only “for” some special group of people?  Those who presume to know (including the Church) presume too much.  

My presumption is that God is like Jesus, and if so, the assumptions about what is or is not God’s will are all turned upside down!