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If I talk to Christians about creativity and calling, it inevitably comes back to this question: what is God’s will for my life?

As I continue to explore creativity and where it leads, I am increasingly asking myself questions about creative calling and vocation. My thoughts have led me back around to the old question of “God’s will”, which is the place I found myself about 30 years ago. Except now I have different eyes.

Someone asked a variation of this question on Facebook the other day. She wrote,

Is it as hard as it seems or do I make it hard? Maybe God isn’t as concerned with what I do as long as it’s making me learn to trust Him more???

This is what I wrote to her in reply:

If you would excuse my unsolicited opinion, I’d tell you the answer to this is to Seek First. Pursue Christ. Read scripture. Pray. But not as just jobs to do; ask God to give you a heart that wants to know God. When you seek after God, he will reveal his character to you. Read Exodus 34 for a glimpse. All of Exodus is a gradual reveal of the character of God to Moses, and we’re the beneficiaries. As you do this, and it takes time, perhaps 1-2 years, and you begin to understand God a little, you will see the world through God’s eyes, and THEN – God will give you your creative calling for your life. And when that comes, you’ll know it.

I’ve been thinking about this lately, and let a staff chapel at St. Andrew about it. I told the story of William Wilberforce as an example of how this works.

In answer to the question, “does God have a will?”, yes, God has a creative calling for us.

But this isn’t the primary thing.

The main thing is that God wants to know us and God wants us to know God. God wants our trust, and that is primary.

But what we do also matters. God designed us with a set of good things in mind for our lives. We just don’t start with the set of good things. God doesn’t want good employees. God wants children who grow up into the fullness of Christ. As with my own children, I want to be in relationship with them, and I also want them to grow up into a life of purpose that helps launch the kingdom of God in the world.