Sunday Musings at the Cottage

A short reflection for your day

Many people speak blithely about God’s will. Others don’t speak of it at all because it seems unclear and is something beyond knowing. We can be too certain or too unsure about what God wills, made equally uncomfortable by hubris or doubt. At times, earnest believers worry that we might have missed God’s will and leads us to wonder if we’ve failed. Mostly, “God’s will” seems to be one of those awkward pious phrases that can make one squirm.

But the Hebrew and Christian scriptures reveal that God does, indeed, have specific desires for each of us, for every life, and all of creation. God’s will isn’t a threat, a plan to follow, or a puzzle. You can’t “miss” or fail at it, because it is a gift. God wills good for us and the world. Goodness — benevolence — is the sacred intention.

In this sense, God’s will challenges us to receive what God desires and to conceive communities that manifest divine aspirations. God’s will invites us into gratitude — and to commit ourselves to making what God wills evident here and now.

What does God will? A quote for your reflection, from the late Marcus Borg:

God wills our liberation, our exodus from Egypt.

God wills our reconciliation, our return from exile.

God wills our enlightenment, our seeing.

God wills our forgiveness, our release from sin and guilt.

God wills that we see ourselves as God’s beloved.

God wills our resurrection, our passage from death to life.

God wills for us food and drink that satisfy our hunger and thirst.

God wills, comprehensively, our well-being — not just my well-being as an individual but the well-being of all of us and of the whole of creation.

In short, God wills our salvation, our healing, here on earth.

May you experience anew the freedom, wholeness, insight, forgiveness, love, rebirth, satisfaction, well-being, and full salvation that God intends for you. Open the gift.

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