Is It Biblical to Enforce the Law?

I don’t usually write blog posts that are tightly bound to current events. Rather, I try to create articles that speak to what’s happening in the headlines but will still stand on their own in the future, offering principles that can be applied to new issues as they come up. But in this case, I feel led to address a current event using the platform I’ve been given. So if this article seems dated in the future, I apologize, but this is the issue for people of faith in my country right now, and I feel that it would be wrong not to say something.

It’s recently come to the light that the U.S. border patrol has been practicing a policy of separating families at the border. Specifically, officers are taking children away from their parents who are found without proper documentation or come seeking asylum from their home countries. Rather than letting these undocumented families wait together for an immigration trial, officers are arresting the parents and sending their children off to DHS. All of this is part of an attempt by the current administration to deter people from trying to immigrate to the U.S., basically by saying, “If you come here, we’re going to treat you like a criminal and take your kids away. So stay out.”

As one might imagine, this has created a great deal of backlash both in the United States and around the world. Citizens and politicians alike have spoken out against this policy. The United Nations drafted a letter calling for this practice to cease immediately. U.S. Senators are trying to pass legislation that would put an end to it. Even the president himself has said he is against separating families at the border.. Opposition to this practice seems universal.

Which is why the world was floored by a couple of statements made by prominent political figures last week. In a speech Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the separation of families at the border, citing Paul’s command in Romans 13 for Christians to follow the law. And later in the day, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders aligned herself with Sessions’s comments, claiming, “It is very biblical to enforce the law.”

These comments were extremely troubling, especially for Christians. The policy of separating children from their parents is evil on its own, but trying to defend that policy using the sacred text of our faith only makes matters worse. By making these statements, Sessions and Sanders were trying to legitimize a horrible policy implemented by the administration they work for, but in reality, they simply brought more criticism upon themselves and misrepresented the Christian faith.

Since then, countless Christian voices have come out of the woodwork denouncing the words of these two individuals and stating in no uncertain terms that separating children from their parents goes against the teachings of the Bible. I’d like to add my voice into the mix, and I’d like to do so by calling into question Sanders’s statement. Is it actually biblical to enforce the law?

Let’s start where Sessions started: Romans 13. It is true that in this chapter, the apostle Paul tells Christians that they should obey the law and submit to governmental authorities. Here’s Romans 13.1-4a, the first bit of that chapter:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have een instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God’s servant for your good.

According to Paul, Christians should submit to governmental authorities because they have been instituted by God to ensure that people do good. While one might take the first sentence out of context and conclude that Christians are supposed to submit to authorities no matter what they do, that’s not the case if you read on. We are to submit to authorities insofar as they promote good (that is, the will of God). This is the gigantic, gaping hole in the Sessions/Sanders argument: The policy they’re defending is not good. In fact, it’s downright demonic.

Throughout history, the people of God have always recognized that the powers that be in the world are in some way instituted by God. They are a necessary means of organizing and protecting large groups of people. At their best, they can promote community, offer support to those in need, and lead us to accomplish things collectively that we couldn’t do on our own. But we have also always recognized that there is a higher law than that of man, and that is God’s law.

This recognition has been with us from the very beginning. When the family of Jacob, the ancestor of the nation of Israel, moved to Egypt, they had their first real experience of being subject to a human government. The relationship was strained to say the least. When Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites, forced inhumane demands on them, and killed their baby boys, did God tell them to submit themselves to the king’s authority? Of course not. He sent his servant Moses to stand up to Pharaoh and say, “Let my people go.” God freed them from an oppressive ruler who had strayed from his law by oppressing people made in his image.

Things didn’t get much better when God’s people started ruling themselves. When the nation of Israel asked him to give them a king, he obliged and appointed King Saul, but he did so reluctantly. And it wasn’t long before this new government diverged from God’s law. By the end of his reign, Saul had become violent, power-hungry, and consumed with rage. He disobeyed God by trying to take over the priesthood and use the nation’s religion for his own gain. And when that didn’t work, he turned to witchcraft. God didn’t tell the people to follow this ruler as he spiraled into desperation and ruin; God replaced him with someone else.

On and on the story goes, the story of God’s people resisting the rule of those who do not follow his laws. The prophets who called out the kings of Israel and Judah for their idol worship and accumulation of wealth. (Many of them were killed for speaking God’s truth to power, by the way.) The young queen who risked her life to stop a government official from committing genocide. The exiles who refused to bow to a foreign king’s idol. (He tried to kill them, too.) Over and over again, God’s people remained faithful to him by opposing rulers who set themselves against him.

And then there’s Jesus, who provoked both the Jewish rulers and the Roman rulers to the point that they executed him as a criminal. Christians are quick to point out the truth that Jesus never committed any sin, but have we stopped to consider that he must have done something to get himself arrested and sentenced to death? The truth is that Jesus broke a lot of laws: over-legalistic religious laws concerning sabbath, laws concerning interactions with other people groups and those with diseases, the Roman law that said no one but Caesar could claim to be a king, and more. (It was probably that last one that got him crucified.) Jesus didn’t break laws arbitrarily, but anytime the law of human beings conflicted with God’s law, he made it clear which side he was on. And he was right in doing so.

The early Christians did the same. Peter and John were arrested for spreading the gospel and commanded not to speak the name of Jesus, but they ignored the rulers’ orders. Stephen, one of the original deacons of the church, was arrested and stoned as a result of his work for Christ. Paul himself, the apostle who wrote Romans 13, was arrested and later executed for sharing the good news of Jesus. Do these sound like people who blindly submitted to governmental authority to you?

Throughout the church’s history, Christians have engaged in civil disobedience to defy and protest unjust laws. From ancient Roman Christians who were executed by the state for refusing to worship the emperor all the way down to Dr. King’s marches for racial justice (and all of the false arrests that were made as a result) and even today in countries across the world where evangelism is outlawed, when governments oppose God’s word, Christians resist. Because we know that when we’re forced to choose between following human laws and following God’s laws, we’ll follow God’s laws every single time.

So no, it isn’t always biblical to enforce the law. In fact, if the law goes against the will of God as communicated in his word, it is decidedly unbiblical to enforce the law. In cases like this, it is actually biblical to break the law, change the law, and, if necessary, replace the people who created the law rather than to follow it. There is no biblical justification for enforcing, following, or supporting evil laws.

Yes, Christians are called to obey the law of the land in most cases, as Romans 13 demonstrates. Most laws in this country , like those protecting the right to life and property, are good. But we are also called to fight against evil in this world, including evil laws from the governments we’re typically meant to submit to. After all, as Ephesians 6.12 reminds us,

Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (emphasis mine).

You know who wrote that? Paul, the same guy who wrote Romans 13. His outlook might have been a little bit different in this passage, though, considering the fact that he was in a Roman prison awaiting trial when he wrote it. That tension you feel between Paul in Romans 13 and Paul in Ephesians 6 is the tension we as Christians are each called to live into every day as we seek to follow God’s will in this world.

In the case of separating families at the border, it’s pretty clear that this policy goes against everything we know about God from the Bible. From his concern for the foreigner, the poor, and the oppressed to the importance he places on the family unit to his great commandment to love others as ourselves, the Bible is chock full of passages and principles that clearly condemn this practice. Our government, the officers who enforce this policy, and all who defend it ought to be ashamed of themselves for their role in destroying the lives of these families. They are not on the side of God.

It is my hope and prayer that this policy be reversed immediately and the damage repaired as much as possible. (Some of it can never be undone.) And I believe that this practice will soon end. But our struggle is just beginning. This is not the only case where the law of the land is opposed to the law of God. And these cases aren’t simply legal matters or political matters; they’re matters of right and wrong, good and evil. It’s clear which side God is on, and it’s our responsibility to ensure that we’re always on his side, no matter what human-made entity that may put us in opposition with.

The consequences of opposing human authorities may be dire, but the consequences of opposing God are much more so. I’ve already decided which side I’m on. Have you?

Misguided Attention

I’m driving home late one night, and I just can’t wait to be out of my car. As I cruise down miles of wooded highway, I begin to imagine my cozy bed back at home. I think about how nice it’ll be to finally lie down, relax, and get some shut-eye. I keep picturing my soft, welcoming mattress and my pillow that’s always the perfect temperature. After a bit of fantasizing about getting home and going to sleep, I suddenly come to and realize that I’m still driving. I know that I’ve passed a couple of stoplights and made several turns, but I have no recollection of them. My mind had drifted far away from my car and the road I was on.

It’s a Saturday morning, and I’m at home playing with my nephew Aiden. We always hang out on Saturdays. He’s asked me to help him build his newest LEGO set, but he keeps coming up with his own creations as I’m trying to follow the instructions. When my phone lights up, I don’t even give it a second thought. I pick it up and start texting. A few minutes later, I’m still absorbed in my phone, and now my nephew is frustrated. He’d rather play by himself than be ignored, so he tosses his LEGOs to the side and leaves to find something else to do.

On lunch break, my fiancé and I decide to watch an episode of Boy Meets World. (We’ve been trying to binge-watch the series for some time.) Halfway through the show, Katherine starts feeling playful and wants to talk. I’m pretty plugged in, so I half-heartedly try to respond without looking away from the TV. It doesn’t take long for this “compromise” to go wrong, and when it’s all said and done, I have a headache, and she’s feeling neglected.

Each of these scenarios leaves me asking the same question: “What was I thinking?”

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Human beings are incredibly bad at paying attention to the things that matter. It’s a universal vice. We seem to be willing to focus on anything and everything except for the things we’re supposed to have our minds on. And it gets us into some tricky situations.

When we don’t pay attention to the things we’re supposed to, people get hurt. Whether it’s hurting someone’s feelings, limiting our own capacity for growth, or—in the case of the car—putting peoples’ lives at risk, the stakes are high. Misdirected attention produces a plethora of collateral damage and not a few casualties.

We just don’t choose the right things to focus on the majority of the time. Maybe we want to be fully present with our loved ones or to finish that important paper or to invest in something that’s important to us. But we can’t seem to do the work that it takes to fully devote ourselves to those things. We have good intentions and start off strong, but inevitably, our focus ends up moving elsewhere.

To be fair, it isn’t all our fault. It’s in our nature, after all. We constantly deal with negativity bias (the temptation to focus exclusively on negative information), confirmation bias (the temptation to focus exclusively on information that supports what we already believe to be true), the primacy effect (the temptation to focus exclusively on the first information we heard on a subject), the recency effect (the temptation to focus exclusively on the last information we heard on a subject), and more. Our minds aren’t necessarily wired to pay attention to the things that mean the most to us.

Not to mention that we live in a world full of distractions. Modern life is too loud, too busy, and too stressful to nurture a healthy attention span, let alone the maturity necessary to properly direct it. There’s always a new activity, a new app, a new headline, a new show, a new notification, a new something that stands between us and truly giving of ourselves to the people and things that we love.

But at the end of the day, the onus does lie on us to rectify this situation. Because at the end of the day, we do have a choice. We can choose to give in, to passively allow these external factors and our own shortcomings to hold us back, or we can choose to acknowledge the problem and do something about it. Awareness is a great step, but it’s only half the battle. We have to make a change. But what can we do?

To me, it seems that the key to properly focusing our attention is to choose our priorities and then commit fully to them. We start by making a list of the things that matter to us the most, and then we choose every day to devote our attention fully to those things. We have to find a way to keep our priorities at the forefront of our minds so that something else (that is, less important) doesn’t sneak in and steal our attention away.

This will look different for different people. Some may need only make a mental list and go over it from time to time. Some may make a note on their phone that they check every day. And for some, it may make more sense to physically write a list and post it somewhere they pass by often. It doesn’t really matter how one does it. What matters is that we each take the time to set our priorities and keep them in the proper order. If we do, then we’ll know that our attention is always directed the right way. And that’s a great way to live.

So wherever you find yourself this week and whatever you find yourself doing, I hope you’ll make sure that you’re paying attention to the things that matter. Because when you do, you’ll find those things to be richer and more rewarding than you ever thought possible. But you can only find out just how wonderful they can be if you give them the time, care, and attention that they deserve. May we each do so, today and every day.

Ding No More

Last year, I wrote an article about notifications on our devices and the way they impact our lives. In that piece, I made some pretty bold statements. I pointed out that most of the digital notifications we receive on a daily basis are completely worthless and that as a whole, they’re hurting us more than they’re helping us. I went so far as to claim that if I never received another notification again, I would be better off for it. And I made a call for each of us to rethink our approach to these intrusions and to make meaningful changes to solve the problems they create. There’s no way I could just leave statements like that hanging, so here I am now for some follow-up.

This piece won’t be as grand and theoretical as its predecessor, though. This time around, I’m here to speak from personal experience. It took some time for me to internalize, process, and apply all of the information that led me to write about this topic last year. But now that I have, I’d like to share my story with you, if you’ll allow me.

The bottom line is this: My devices don’t ding anymore. Or buzz. Or chirp. Or any of that other nonsense. I’ve eliminated 99% of the notifications from my life, and just as I predicted, it’s been wonderful.

You might be thinking, “He’s exaggerating. There’s no way he actually turned off all of his notifications.” But I’m not, and I did. I literally turned off notifications for every major source in my life. Texts. Emails. DMs. Likes. Comments. Snaps. Retweets. Replies. All of them, gone. They don’t make noise anymore. They don’t show up on my home screen anymore. And they aren’t in my notification center anymore. No. more. notifications.

Does that sound extreme to you? Because it did to me, at least at first. When I decided to turn off all of my notifications, it gave me a great deal of anxiety. I was afraid that I might miss out on something important. Or that someone might get mad at me for not responding to them quickly enough. Or that I might find myself constantly wondering if I have a new message and fighting the urge to check. These were very real fears.

So I decided to make it an experiment. I told myself I’d try it out just for a week of family vacation, and then I‘d probably go back to “normal” once the trip was over. But a funny thing happened: None of my fears came to fruition, and I found that I enjoyed my family time (and life in general) significantly more without the constant interruptions coming from my devices. So when I got home, I just kept the experiment going. And now here I am a month later, still living notification-free.

So maybe it’s not so outrageous to consider a life without notifications after all. But still, that doesn’t make it feasible. The end result sounds nice, but the real question is, “How?” How does one move from a never-ending stream of dings, pings, and buzzes to silence? That was the question I had to answer myself. It’s taken some tweaking, but I think I’ve found the right way to do it, at least for me.

A quick note before we dive in: I tend to work almost exclusively using Apple products, so the description of my process might use some Apple lingo. But based on my understanding of other platforms, I think this approach could translate to most anything. If you have any questions about the technical aspects of implementing my method on your specific device, I’d be happy to help you out. Just get into contact with me.

To start off, I had to think about where the majority of my notifications were coming from. Which applications were the most intrusive? For me, it was the basics: Messages, Mail, and social media. This handful of applications was dominating my time. I had tried in the past to keep these apps at bay by putting my phone on Do Not Disturb mode, but that wasn’t enough. The notifications still showed up on my lock screen, and there were always those annoying red bubbles on the home screen letting me know how many texts and tweets I was missing out on.

It felt like my phone was using me rather than the other way around. The apps that were supposed to be working for me and making my life better were actually bossing me around and telling me how to spend my time. I couldn’t resist the urge to tap on the notifications, even if it was just to get them to go away.

So I did something that seemed drastic, but was actually necessary: I went into my notification settings and completely took away notification access for my messaging, email, and social media apps. I didn’t just take away their ability to make sounds and buzzes, but their ability to push any sort of notification at all, including banners and those awful red bubbles on my home screen. Now, I could have a dozen unread texts or zero, and I have no way of knowing the difference until I actually open the app.

Here’s why I turned off these apps’ notifications altogether: I check them multiple times a day anyway, often multiple times an hour. There’s no possible way I’m going to miss something important because I’m always on those apps by choice. But that’s the key: It’s my choice. I want to choose when I check my text messages and emails. I want to choose when I check Twitter and Instagram. I want to choose when I check how many likes I’ve received on my latest Facebook post. I don’t want those apps telling me when to pay attention to them. So I just don’t give them the opportunity to.

Now, I can open the Messages app every five minutes or every five hours and still feel the same way. I don’t have the anxiety that comes with a clogged-up notification center and a red bubble on my home screen. When I have free time, I check my texts often. When I’m busy, I let them pile up until I’ve got a spare moment. Not only has this made it easier to enjoy my life day-to-day, but I also actually like reading my text messages now. They’re like nice, little unexpected surprises that I can open whenever I want to. Same with emails and social media interactions: Making them less intrusive also makes them more fun.

For all of my other apps, I use the Do Not Disturb feature. Each of my devices has one, and I leave it on 100% of the time. This way, I don’t miss out on important information from apps I don’t use constantly (such as my banking app), but they still don’t have the ability to interrupt my life. Sometimes, I’ll go a full day without a single notification showing up. But even when they do come along, they’re a lot easier to manage now, and I know that they’re worth my time.

I’ve also created a new rule: If one of these apps gives me one useless notification, or even too many notifications that are only marginally important, I immediately open up my settings app and revoke its notification privileges. I’m constantly monitoring which notifications I’m allowing into my life and evaluating whether or not they’re worthwhile. If they aren’t, I make a small change that has a lasting impact on my mental well-being. Basically, if a notification isn’t worth tapping on, then it isn’t worth existing at all.

The key, I think, is keeping in mind that notifying us about information is a privilege that we give to these apps. It isn’t a right. You may not remember doing this, but when you set up these apps on your phone, they had to ask your permission to start notifying you. Most of us simply grant these permissions without giving it a second thought, but it’s actually quite freeing to realize that you can say no. Not every app deserves that privilege, and we have the power to grant and revoke that privilege as we see fit.

On a related note, I’ve been removing digital clutter from my life in other ways, too. You know those pesky email newsletters you’re always getting but never read? Most of them have an unsubscribe button at the bottom, and I’ve been pushing it. A lot. I also created smart folders to automatically catch certain emails that I want to keep but don’t necessarily need to see every time they come in, such as daily confirmations of payments I make on my credit card. Those messages get filed away for safekeeping without taking up a second of my time or attention.

And I’ve been cleaning up my social media feeds, too. Mind you, I haven’t unfriended anyone. But most social networks now have an option to mute accounts that you don’t want to disconnect with completely but don’t need to see on a daily basis either. That person I met one time at a conference is great, but have no desire to see a picture of their daily coffee order. With just a couple of clicks, I’ve parred down my social feeds to the information that really matters, posts from the people I care about the most. Again, this saves me mental energy and makes interacting with these services a lot more meaningful. Are you catching the trend here?

Of course, such a big change doesn’t come without its complications. The biggest one is ensuring that I am available in case of emergency. And that’s where my one exception to the, “My phone never dings,” rule comes in. In my Do Not Disturb settings, I told my phone to mute everything except phone calls from people in my contacts. That way, if a family member, friend, or colleague absolutely needs to contact me immediately, they can. But only if they call, and only if they’re someone I know. (Sorry, robocallers; you’re going to voicemail.)

In urgent situations, people tend to call instead of text anyway, but I have had to do a bit of expectation management as well. Unfortunately, our cultural technology addiction has led to a false belief that text messages should be read and responded to immediately. I’ve had to tell a couple of people—and I probably should tell everyone—that if they need to contact me in a timely fashion, they have to call me. Because I’m not consistent about checking my texts, and that’s the way it should be.

Another complication is that the devices themselves don’t give me as much choice as I need to create a truly perfect solution. For example, I actually do want text messages from my fiancé to interrupt my life. But there’s no way to make an exception for her in Apple’s Do Not Disturb settings, so she gets caught in the filter, too. It would also be nice to turn on notifications from coworkers during business hours and then have them muted when I’m on my own time. And there are certain instances when we want our devices to be interruptive (such as when we set calendar reminders or play games like Trivia HQ), and I wish there were a way to only allow notifications in these few cases.

These sorts of customizations are certainly technically possible, but it’s on the device makers to give that power to consumers. Thus far, I haven’t seen it. But tech companies are starting to acknowledge the impact of technology addiction and notification overload, and they’re working on tools to empower users to take control of their devices. So hopefully we’ll see these sorts of options added very soon.

And finally, if you do decide you want to go this route, be prepared for your apps to get mad at you. The people who develop software for our devices benefit greatly from having the ability to interrupt our lives whenever they like, and they aren’t happy when that privilege is taken away. Every time I open the Facebook Messenger app now, I get a little message reprimanding me for not allowing the app to send me notifications. My old email client, Spark, disabled certain features because I wouldn’t approve its notifications requests. And so on.

The whole system is built on the assumption that we give our devices unencumbered access to our lives, so when we take that access away, it pushes back. But that’s alright. The system works just fine without all of the notifications. In fact, it actually works better for me. If developers want the deep, persistent access to my life that they’re used to getting, they’re going to have to give me a really good reason to turn those notifications back on. I’m not sure that there’s any value an app could add to my life that would be worth more than the relief and sense of centeredness I now feel.

It’s nearly impossible, I know, but try to picture it: life without notifications. You could carry on a conversation with your partner, look into each other’s eyes, and not have to stop every time someone sends one of you a text. You could share a meal with your friends and laugh together knowing that each of you is fully present. You could have fun with your family and create memories with one another that no one would miss out on due to digital distraction. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? And the good news is that it’s possible.

I’ve shared with you my approach, and I’ve done so because it’s worked really well for me. I think it could work for you, too. It’s scary at first, I know. We’ve been taught that we need notifications, but I’m living proof that we don’t. If a techie like me can learn to live without them and actually like it, I think it’s worth a shot for you, too.

I do understand that this approach isn’t for everyone. I don’t claim to have it all figured out. Maybe you’re in a situation where you need to be more instantly accessible for loved ones or for work. Maybe you use your devices for accessibility, and you need notifications. Or maybe you love playing time-based games and find that they enrich your life. I’d love to hear your perspective on this topic, too.

But regardless of whether my method is the right one for you, I would encourage you to seriously consider the role that you’re allowing your devices and especially notifications to play in your life. Are they disrupting time with your loved ones? Are they causing you stress? Are they taking up too much of your valuable attention and energy? We can all do something to take control of the technology in our lives. We can all find ways to make our devices work for us so that we don’t find ourselves working for them. And if you think the notification-free life might be the solution for you, I hope you’ll give it a try. I did, and I’m never looking back.

The Lifestyle of Following God’s Will

We’ve been talking about following God’s will for a while now, and we’ve covered a lot of different topics. We got the basics down, answered a few common questions, and dug deep into some of the more difficult issues that come up during this process. But after all of this discussion, you may be left wondering, “What’s the point of all of this? What’s the end goal?” Well, that’s our topic for today in the final installment of this series.

We’ve been talking about following God’s will as a process because that’s what it is. It’s a series of steps that starts with recognizing our own in ability to make the right decisions and leads us down a path towards God’s ultimate purpose for us. Like any process, this one changes over time and requires different things from us at different stages.

When we first start the journey of following God’s will, we feel the need to be very intentional and dogmatic. We wake up every morning and say, “God, what are you calling me to do today?” We listen for his answer through the various mediums we’ve discussed previously, and then we go do what he’s telling us to do. And when the big choices arise, we pray and we pray and we pray until we feel God indicating what we should do, and we go do it. This process is great. It’s necessary. It’s exactly what we’re supposed to do at first. That’s why we’ve spent weeks discussing it. But it’s also not the end goal.

Instead, the end goal is to become so in tune with God and his will for our lives that it becomes automatic. Our wills aligns with his will to the point that they’re the same. Our minds have been so shaped and so formed by God that we make godly decisions by default rather than after much deliberation.

Of course, prayer and intentionality will always be necessary because we’re imperfect people. We can’t make all of the right decisions on our own; that’s the premise of this whole endeavor. We’ll always have to rely on God to lead us. But we’re not meant to constantly live in a place of tension between what we want and what God wants. If we’re developing spiritually the way that we’re meant to, it should get easier and more natural to follow God’s will over time as we allow ourselves to become more and more like him.

Following God’s path for our lives should eventually become a lifestyle. At its root, it’s not about what we do; it’s about who we are. And throughout this whole process, God is forming us into the people he wants us to be. Into people after his own heart. Into people who care about and prioritize the things that he cares about and prioritizes. Into people who have internalized his will to a point that it has become our own.

Ultimately, following God’s will isn’t a decision or even a series of decisions. It’s a way of life. It’s an identity. Forming that identity takes time and effort, and holding on to that identity takes even more effort, but if we truly believe that God’s will is the best path for our lives, then forming a lifestyle of following his will intuitively should be our primary goal.

I’m not saying I’ve gotten there 100% myself yet. And I don’t want to put down anyone who’s still going through the process to get to that point. The process is important, and there will always be some element of struggle to it, even after you’ve been committed to this lifestyle for years. But I can tell you from personal experience that doing things God’s way is so, so worth it. Nothing could possibly be better.

Everything I’ve shared with you throughout this series I’ve learned from my own journey. I made a decision long ago that I would do everything within my power to follow God’s will for my life, and it’s made all the difference for me. And I believe it will make all the difference for you, too, if you’re willing to commit to it. It’s not just a decision; it’s an identity. It’s who we’re meant to be. And if you haven’t already, I invite you to start the journey of becoming who God made you to be.

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When You Disagree with God

Following God’s will is a wonderful, rewarding, fulfilling process. It has unlimited benefits. It solves a good deal of our problems for us. It truly is the best way to do life. But sometimes, even in light of all of that, it’s still really, really hard.

Because even after we’ve done everything we’ve talked about in this series, at the end of the day, we’re still human. We’re still imperfect. Our minds and our wills are still affected by the brokenness of the world, which means that there will be times when we find that what we want is in distinct conflict with God’s will. It happens to all of us, and when it does, it’s not fun.

This can happen several different ways. One of the most common ways is regarding doctrine. We have some belief that comes from our upbringing or our culture or our own logic that doesn’t line up with what God reveals about who he is and what he wants through his word. It might even be something that we were taught as a Christian principle that actually goes against the Bible and sound theology! When we truly devote ourselves to studying and trying to understand Christian teaching, we find a lot of shortcomings in our belief system. These stem from the fact that, as we already know, we’re only human.

There are also the day-to-day instances of not wanting to follow God’s will. As we go about our lives, the Holy Spirit is constantly communicating with us, giving us opportunities to show kindness and grace to others. (Some people call this their conscience.) Sometimes these actions require us to get out of our comfort zones or to sacrifice our time and resources in ways we normally wouldn’t. Whether it’s smiling to a stranger on the street, giving a panhandler a dollar, or stopping to have a conversation with someone who’s clearly hurting, God’s will involves a lot of small, daily choices that we wouldn’t make on our own, and sometimes, we push back against them.

But this issue is most apparent and most urgent when it comes to big life decisions like where to live, what career moves to make, and who to surround ourselves with. We like to talk about seeking God’s will on these decisions, but often, we do so without really expecting a response. What we actually want is for God to give his stamp of approval on our idea of how things should go. And sometimes, he does. But other times, God is clearly calling us to follow a plan different from our own. To do something we don’t want to do. Maybe even to do something that seems counterproductive to our plans. What do we do in situations like these?

Fortunately, we have an excellent example of what to do when we find ourselves here. The best example, really. We have Jesus, the perfect human being, the son of God and God himself, as our example to follow when we disagree with God. As Jesus was preparing to be arrested, sentenced to death, and crucified, he prayed this simple prayer: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22.42).

Like us, Jesus was a human being. He had a human will, and in at least this case, his human will was in conflict with God’s divine will for his life. He didn’t want to suffer and die the way he did. Would you? He dreaded it. I’m sure the idea of it made him sick. He was nervous, anxious, maybe even scared of the physical and mental torture that lay ahead of him. But he knew that for some reason, it was a part of God’s plan.

And so, he did it. He chose to put his own feelings aside and put God’s will first. He chose to endure the pain, the suffering, and the embarrassment for the sake of bringing his heavenly father’s purposes to fruition. And because he did, the world was changed forever. I’m so thankful that Jesus was obedient.

So where does that leave us? I think there are a few important things that we can learn from Jesus’ example. First of all, we don’t have to feel bad for having desires that differ from God’s. Because it happens to everyone. It even happened to Jesus. Feelings of guilt and shame for disagreeing with God might be natural, but if we dwell on them, they can hold us back from living out his plan for our lives, so it’s best that we check them at the door. It’s not wrong to disagree with God.

But it is wrong to disobey God. The second thing we learn from Jesus’ example is that in these moments, obedience is always the best path forward. God would never ask us to do something if he didn’t have a good reason for it. While we’re focused on the here and now, he sees the big picture, and he knows what is best for us and for the world. And that’s why we have to make the commitment now that when we do find our desires in conflict with God’s, we’ll choose to follow his will every time.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not about what we want. And that’s the final lesson Jesus teaches us with his prayer. He didn’t just choose to obey. He didn’t begrudgingly follow God’s path, complaining and looking for a way out the entire time. Instead, he chose to want what God wanted. We’re going to dive more deeply into this next week, but that’s the ultimate goal of following God’s will: to fully align our deepest desires with his.

There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with God. It’s an inevitable part of life. It’s even acceptable (and maybe even healthy) to express that disagreement to him. But at the end of the day, we’re called to follow God’s will no matter what because it is always what’s best for us. So when we disagree with God, we recognize how we feel, and then we do what he says anyway. Because he knows what’s best for us, and he’s leading us somewhere wonderful. More on that next week when we finish up this series on following God’s will. I’ll see you then!