The Joy of Whatever

There’s currently tension in the Duford household and it is palpable. It’s a tension thousands of other families around the country are simultaneously experiencing with us. You see, our daughter, Haley, is desperately awaiting word from the colleges she has applied to as to whether or not she’s made their cut. No big deal, just the fact that her entire future - what she’ll do, who she’ll marry, where she’ll live - likely weighs in the balance.

You’ll have to forgive me for being so melodramatic, but Haley is our firstborn, so we’ve never walked this path before and I’m a bit overprotective as her dad. As our first child, Haley has always been our living, breathing, experiment. Every step of the way in her life, my wife and I have been figuring out this whole parenting thing on the fly. Within a few short months we’ll be sending our baby girl out into this big world and we begin our journey as quasi-empty-nesters (we have a fifteen-year-old son still at home).

And it seems like everything boils down to a couple emails from some random university admissions officers we’ve never met. A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ determines the trajectory for the rest of her life.

The nervous tension derives from the fact that as her parents we want Haley to successfully walk the path God has established for her to walk. We want her to live a life of joy, purpose, and adventure. We all get one shot at this life and I so desperately want my little girl to succeed in her journey.

Mary Oliver in her poem The Summer Day said, “Tell me, what is your plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” As you face your day what is it that you are going to do that’s going to make a difference in this world?

As a pastor I cannot even begin to count how many conversations I’ve had with people in my church in regards to this type of question. Everyone wants their life to count. We want to know there’s purpose behind what we do; that our lives and work matter. For the Christian our version of this question of “How can I make a difference?” is simply phrased, “What is God’s will for my life?”

There is so much pressure attached to this question. For generations people have been stressing out about whether they’ve heard God’s will, are walking in God’s will, or have entirely missed God’s will. There’s just so much weight assigned to hearing God’s specific direction for your life in regards to what you’re supposed to do for a career, who you’re supposed to marry, and where you’re supposed to live, that the joy of living this wild and precious life is quickly sapped by the nagging pressure of not screwing it up.

I suggest, however, that this nervous tension of merely focusing on not missing the will of God for our lives is not Biblical. Instead of living a joy-filled life, which is a prominent fruit of walking with God, we’re blanketed with anxiety and insecurity.

The Bible has something incredibly disarming to say about the will of God that can bring peace to our anxious souls when we’re trying to figure out what steps to take. 

Colossians 3:17 – And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Do you see what I see?

In this brief sentence the Apostle Paul has laid out for us the will of God and it’s all hidden very neatly in the word ‘whatever’. This word ‘whatever’ is a license to pursue the legal and moral passions of our heart as long as we do our ‘whatevers’ in a manner that first and foremost brings glory to God. Paul is shifting the conversation of God’s will for our lives from being about WHAT we do to WHY we do what we do, and for WHOM we do what we do.

For far too long the Church has preached a sacred/secular dichotomy where the work of the pastors, evangelists, and missionaries is sacred while the work of the plumber, teacher, and businessperson is secular. We’ve created a divide that Scripture doesn’t support. 

“It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular; it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act.”
A.W. Tozer

All of us are called to glorify God with our lives and with our work, but our purpose is not fulfilled by what title we carry or what industry we serve, but in whether or not the ‘whatever’ we do with our lives is done in such a manner that it reflects the heart and character of God.

So, the Dufords are getting anxious for no good reason. You see, whether Haley ends up going to the University of Florida or Florida Atlantic University or some other university we haven’t even considered, the fate of her life is not resting on that yet-to-be-received admissions email. God’s plan for Haley’s life is that whether she attends UF or FAU, whether she studies nursing or business, whether she lives in Orlando or London, that in whatever it is she does she determines to do it in a manner that represents her Creator well. Her joy is found in delighting in him in whatever she does.

Have you ever been tempted to allow what you do rather than why you do what you do to guide you in life? If so, have you found that the pressure of always having to perform has sucked the joy out of the life God has called you into?