What Am I Supposed To Do With My Life?

This is not an uncommon question. If many are not asking it, they are thinking it. It is a human question, a question that we all know needs to be answered by someone other than ourselves - someone who knows what's going on, someone in authority. Deep down, we know that we don't know all the facts. We know that, left to ourselves, we could very well run off of the edge of life's cliff.

The Scriptures, at this point, become a bit frustrating. It is common practice to look in them to find some magic text that tells us exactly what we are supposed to do with our lives. We pull out the concordance and look up our name, only to find that there are no listings. When we ask the most important question, the Word of God seems to be silent.

But it's not. Christ obviously has no intention of giving us particular directions from his Word. He is not going to say, "Scott, go here today, and there tomorrow." Or, "Johnny, take the job at McDonald's and don't take the one at Wendy's." I like to call this the glorious ambiguity of the Bible.

Having said all of this, I know there is need for some clarification. While the Scriptures are inexact in some personal sense, that doesn't mean that they are insufficient for every single person. And while they are gloriously ambiguous in particular personal imperatives (say that five times really fast!!!), they are far from unhelpful, and untrustworthy for each individual's life.

The problem tends not to be with the Scriptures, but with us. They are completely sufficient when we approach them in the right manner. If a guy from Wall Street goes to the Bible searching for the next big stock to buy, he will come away saying that they were insufficient for him. Similarly, I believe that we too often approach them in this way.

We want God's Word to be like an instruction manual. We want to read: 1) Do this; 2) Now do that; 3) Once you have done that, now do this, and so on. But God doesn't speak to us this way. He is far more loving and far more thoughtful. He is also far more simple.

While he may speak unclearly about where we should take a job, he is not so ambiguous in telling us what we should do with our lives. The command is so simple - we should love our neighbor as ourself. This is God's way of saying, "Don't worry about where you are going, just go! I will tell you where you are going later."

Loving another individual is not only a direct reflection of our love for God, but it is also an expression of our humble dependence upon him for everything in life. We often have to be dragged by love's cords into what we are supposed to do with our lives.

Loving another forces surrender. It is the cross-life. Discipling another in the faith is worth turning down a vacation or job. We may not want to, but for the sake of the other, we must.  Loving others demands our resources, time and efforts. Loving demands selflessness and sacrifice. Soon our questions shift from, "What am I supposed to do with my life?" to, "Where are they supposed to be in the Christian life?" This is where God wants us. This is where the Scriptures lose their [supposed] ambiguity.

The first question may take months or even years to find out. The answer to the second question should have been found yesterday - in the Bible. Love others well, and you will soon find out what you are supposed to do with your life. Love no one, and you will never truly know.

Loving our neighbor has a way of forcing us to wrestle with God. As their needs pull the life out of us, we tend to cling to the only one who can give it. And when he seems silent in our suffering, we are more inclined to plead with him for answers. And answer he does, every time, because he is good.