Doing the Will of God (1 John 2:17) with a keen insight by Dwight Morrow.

SCRIPTURE: 1 John 2:17  (TM)

The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out - but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

STORY:

One day Dwight Morrow and his wife, the parents of Anne Lindbergh, were in Rugby, England.  After wandering through the streets they realized that they had lost their way.  At this moment an incident occurred that entered into Morrow's philosophy and became a guiding principle in his life. He stopped a little Rugby lad of about 12 years. "Could you tell us the way to the station?" he asked. "Well," the boy answered, "You turn to the right there by the grocer's shop and then take the second street to the left. That will bring you to a place where four streets meet. And then, sir, you had better inquire again."  

"This  answer came to symbolize for Dwight Morrow his own method of approaching complicated problems," writes Harold Nicolson in his excellent biography. "It implied in the first place a realistic skepticism regarding the capacity of human intelligence. It was in the second place an object lesson in the inevitability of gradualness. And in the third place, it was a parable of how, when the ultimate end is uncertain, one should endeavor to advance, if only a little way, in the correct, rather than the incorrect direction."

OBSERVATION:

Knowing and doing the Will of God is difficult at best. There are many books published addressing the concept. There are multiple weekly studies to help us understand this subject. There are tons of sermons filling volumes in nearly every seminary library on this idea. It is challenging and can often test the soul of the most faithful.

I’m always a little leery of the person who speaks so convincingly of knowing what God’s will is for the church, for a situation or the nation. It is a complicated and deeper than many minds can comprehend.

Dwight Morrow made the discovery that what we can know is how to get a little further along in our journey. What should be our next step? Which direction should we take?  Nothing more, but nothing less.

The real challenge is having the courage to do what we know we should do at any particular moment in life. I really believe that is sufficient knowledge about the Will of God. Anything more is just wasted information.

PRAYER:

Give us the courage, Lord, to do what we know you want us to do.