Fun word of the day: Poppycock!

The will of God. These are ominous words for many people (and by many people, I mean me, and so I assume there are others out there as well). I think it is the word 'the'. 'The' implies one thing, and only one thing. If you say "He is the best driver, you mean no one can drive better than him. You don't say 'he is the good driver'. There are many good drivers. If you say 'the', then it means the one and only. Try it out. The chair means that one chair you are indicating - all other chairs are excluded. 'The group' means that particular group. There may be other groups roaming about, setting fire to random buildings, cars, and slow people, but you are not talking about them. You are talking about one particular group.
Now, back on topic - the will of God. What is it? That is the question that is so difficult to answer, especially in relation to work and big life decisions (aka love). When people are faced with deciding what they want to do in life and they wonder what the will of God is for their life, it seems to me that often they get bogged down in finding that one perfect thing that they should be doing. It doesn't help that from an early age we are told to get a good education so we can get a good (read: high paying (because that is apparently the only thing that makes a job 'good')) job, and that we should be doing something we love. No one wants to work at a job they don't like, and when it happens it feels like we must not be following God's will.
Alternatively, some people want to find a career that they don't enjoy too much because they want to follow God's will instead. They think that God wants them to sacrifice, and so the things they love must be of the world and not to be chased after as a career, so they turn to what they feel is more dignified or spiritually impactful or 'deep' as a career so that they can be following 'The Will Of God' (read that with an echo-y voice).
Both options can leave a person not following God's will, but both can leave a person right smack dab in the middle of God's will.
And don't get me started on love (what's that? It's too late? Well, I guess I must continue then). Hollywood talks about love like it is: a) sex, and b) a mystical thing that 'you will just know when it happens', and will lead immediately to sex. Churches aren't much better (though replace the word 'sex' with 'marriage'). The view of love I have always gotten from the church as I have grown up is that God has a person picked out for me and that when I meet her we will fall in love and I am only unmarried because I haven't found 'the one' yet. There are all sorts of implications about free will vs destiny I could get into here, but I won't (at least not thoroughly), not today. In relation to 'The Will of God', it seems that getting married to 'the one' that God has picked out for you is the obvious choice and it is a bit odd (though only whispered when the person is not around) for someone, especially a woman, to be in the church and unmarried. And heaven forbid they ever express the desire to remain unmarried.
I'm straying a bit from the point. The point is, when people wonder about love and 'the will of God', the assumption is that there is someone who is 'the one' for everyone out there and that you 'will just know when it happens'. Or, to sum it all up in one word: Poppycock! I'll say it again, but only because it is a fun word to say: Poppycock!
So what is the will of God? It is not a point. It is not a singular thing, a sole direction, a lone path to take. When I leave work, I can go down Ranchlands Blvd to John Laurie, get off at fourteenth, go down a few side streets and arrive home. Or I can go down Crowchild to 16th ave, follow that to Centre street and end up at home. Or I could down down Nosehill to Country Hills, turning off at Beddington, follow that to Deerfoot, turn off at 32nd, follow some side streets and end up at home. All three get me where I need to be (cuz I'm a hungry boy at quittin' time!), and none can be said to be wrong. Some take longer than others and take me past different places and people. That is the will of God - a journey.
I saw an illustration that helped me understand this concept. The will of God is represented by a large circle, and there is a smaller circle within it is a smaller circle that is labled "area of freedom and responsibility". Area, not point. God's will is not a single thing that you must be doing to the exclusion of all others - a woman you must love, and only that woman; a job you must do and only that job. It is much broader than that.
I'd say that in the most broadest of broad terms, God's will is to love Him and love others. As long as the woman you love does not prevent you from doing that, then you are loving the right woman. As long as the career you have chosen is not preventing you from doing that, then you have chosen the right career. I recently thought of an analogy that I have been finding very intriguing: imagine that you are somewhere and are told you can have one piece of pie (there are other people there and only enough pie for one piece each). Your options are apple pie and peach pie (or any two pies you like). You like both pies equally, so it is completely a matter of picking a piece of pie and eating it. This is where people like me really struggle - I know that I like both pies and I want to make sure I pick the 'right' pie. But there is no right pie. They're both the same and I will enjoy either pie equally. The real key is to pick a pie and enjoy it fully. If I pick the peach pie, I cannot eat it while thinking about the apple pie and how good it might have been. If I do that, then not only am I regretting not having the apple pie, but my enjoyment of the peach pie is diminished as well.
In this analogy, God's will is not the pie. God's will is the party that is serving the pies. The only way to get the pies is to be at the party, just like the only way to be getting the choices that God wants for your life is to be living in His will. But there may be choices that pop up in your life that are equally appealing. There isn't necessarily one that is wrong and one that is right. There may be one that is better, but better and worse are not the same as wrong and right. Two billion dollars is better than one billion dollars. One billion dollars is still good to have and a great deal of money.
There is a saying: Love God and follow your heart. That seems in contradiction to what I have grown up hearing: Deny your heart and follow God. It may not have been said quite so blatantly (it was sometimes that explicit) but that is the sentiment I am used to hearing. The problem is, God puts these desires on our hearts when we follow Him, so why should we ignore them. As I said, as long as your desire doesn't get in the way of loving God and loving others, it should be fine to follow.
I think part of the problem is that we forget, or have trouble grasping, that God is different from us on a deep and fundamental level. God is not a human and is not bound by human limitations such as time. But what about Jesus, you say? He was, is, and ever will be fully human. But he is still God. The trinity is confusing, and that is okay. For purposes of this discussion, suffice it to say that, even though he was perfectly human and completely human when he lived on earth, he was and is still God. And God does not live in time the same way we do. In the movie (and comic series) The Watchmen, there is a character that, through a freak accident, has superhuman powers, including the ability to see time differently than people. He can be said to be in all times at the same time. Thus, he can tell someone the results of a conversation between himself and another character that has not yet happened. That does not mean he controls what happens and that there is only one possible outcome. It just means that he has already seen the outcome of the choices that are yet to be made. I think it is similar with God - He has granted us free will and we can choose what we do and the choices we need to make. But because He exists beyond time (or out of time or time exists within Him or however you want to say it) He has already seen the results of our choices. I think that is why there seems to be a contradiction in the Bible of people having free will and yet God clearly saying He knows what you are going to do and the path that you will take. He is not forcing you into anything and you have the choice; He just knows the result of said choice.
As a side note, there is at least one verse (I think) that talks about the path that God has chosen for us, or something that He has chosen for us that almost contradicts the whole 'given us free will idea'. But just because He has chosen a path for us does not mean we have to walk it. Ask any parent who has chosen an outfit for a young child, only to choose another when the child refuses to wear said first outfit. Of course, I may be wrong about that verse or misinterpreting/misrepresenting the context/meaning of said verse. If you know the verse (or verses) to which I am alluding and I am way off base, then ignore the preceding paragraph. It wasn't central to the argument in any case.
The whole reason for this long missive is that I am trying to settle questions, fears and doubts in my own heart. These are things that I have thought about and believe strongly in my head. But I am a feeler, not a thinker. I had a conversation with my friend Peter recently where the 'Myers-Briggs' personality test was referenced. He asked if I had taken it and whether I was a thinker or a feeler. I said I was a thinker, and he contradicted me, saying that he believed I was a feeler. The more that I have thought about it, the more I realised he was right. Plus, now that I think about it more, when I took the test I'm pretty sure I was an INFP, with the F being 'feeler' as opposed to being a T for 'thinker'. (The N may have been an S, but it has been a long time since I took the test, so I don't remember exactly). Either way, I have thought through the will of God question a great deal and it makes sense in my head, but it goes against what I have heard all of my life and it is still a battle to make my heart actually believe what my head knows to be true. I guess I'd say that it feels true, but doesn't yet feel right in the sense of natural and intuitive. What I said earlier about people struggling with denying what they enjoy to live a life that is 'deeper' and more 'spiritual' really applies to me. I struggle with that whenever I think about what I want to do with life. I want to do something that 'matters', that is 'significant', but I don't think I know what I mean when I say that, and I don't know why I feel the way I do. In the end, I want my motives for what I do to be the right ones (fortune and fame! oh wait...), and if those are right, then I am following the will of God no matter what I do.
And that's no poppycock!