Guidance in Community - Part 3
21 03 2007Individual Guidance and Corporate Guidance
Last week, I have posted Part 1 & 2 on some lessons I have been learning about how we discern God’s leading in community. So today is part 3:
I sense God is leading; I move forward with a sense of trepidation, hope and faith. Have I got it right? Small mid course adjustment here, closed door there. God seems to guide me as I am moving. I would rather that He gives the whole map before I set out on a journey, but that just isn’t my experience of how He guides. The destination is unclear, but there does seem to be some direction that He is taking me, even if it does sometimes resemble a rather inebriated person walking home from the pub: there is a general direction of travel, it just isn’t always in a straight line!
And isn’t that most people’s experience of God’s guidance? There are some people who seem to have a “clear word from the Lord”. That’s great. But I also sometimes wonder if we don’t seem a lot more certain at the end of a particular faith journey, than while we are in the midst of it.
That would certainly be true of how I came to marry my wife, Pippa. Now I look back and it just seems so obvious that God was bringing us together. There was a clear sense of Him making it happen, speaking to us, signs and clues. But at the time I do remember it was a lot more uncertain! It was with some fear and trepidation that I asked her to marry me. Would she say yes? It is the right thing? The right time? I wanted to be together, but was this the Lord’s plan? It was faith operating in the midst of uncertainty and a little anxiety!
Abraham is also a good example here. In the New Testament, he is lauded as a man of faith, who obeyed God’s word. When we actually read the story, he tried to make it happen in his own strength, work it out his own way, he lied and hardly portrays a man of certainty and faith.
But isn’t that the point? When we are in the midst of our journey, faith is walking forward in the midst of our doubts, our uncertainties, our fears? We stumble and fall. We wander off. We try different paths. We try to work it out ourselves. But somehow in the midst of it, we are walking with God, and He gently keeps us going in the right direction. When we get to the destination of that part of our journey we can say that God was leading us & speaking to us. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see God’s hand at work more clearly. But lets not confuse that with certainty at the time.
And lets not confuse uncertainty with unbelief. Using this image of journey and walking forward, faith is walking forward however certain or uncertain we are. God is drawing us forward, and we trust Him, even though we don’t know what the journey will bring to us. Unbelief is when we refuse to move forward. We go back or stand still. That’s unbelief and that’s wrong.
That’s my experience of God’s guidance. And I think it is most people’s experience of God’s guidance. So here’s my point:
Why should it be any different when it comes to God guiding a community? Is it that church should be one place of certainty, in the midst of a world of uncertainty? Do we want people to be sure, before we risk? Or can we risk together, to move forward sensing God is compelling us not to stand still? To be confident in Him, that He will lead us on the journey even though we aren’t certain where we end up together?
So what are your experiences of God guiding you? And what are your expectations of how that works in community? If they are different, why is that?
one of the changes for me was in my understanding of psalm 119 v105 about God’s word being a lamp to my feet and light to my path was not so much the million watt spotlight i imagined it to be making everything as clear as day but more like a t-light strapped onto my saddle, flickering, giving just enought light that as my foot was about to touch the ground with each step i would be able to see a stone, snake, hole, etc…
I think part of the fun of beinga community is the helping each other when we do stumble over that rock and in sharing the journey, somehow trying to let our lil t-lights from God make a bigger illumination that just me strolling alone…
This reminds me of part of TS Eliot’s The Four Quartets:
These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
It’s incarnation, the tussle, the bobbing and weaving.
“But isn’t that the point?” Heck yes! It is about incarnation.
“When we are in the midst of our journey, faith is walking forward in the midst of our doubts, our uncertainties, our fears?” I guess it is also about discerning faith within our very own hopes, desires, illusions, plans and convictions which makes for quite a coktail..
“we are walking with God” Simon Tugwell talks of “keeping company with God” and “living with God” both of which are similar and which I like.
“And lets not confuse uncertainty with unbelief.” Fabulous.
Is it an oversimplification to note that in charismatic circles faith seems to have been reduced to the idea of knowing where we are going/what he has definitively said (!) and measuring our faith along the way by how firmly we stay rooted to that historical position in terms of passion/enthusiasm/positivity? Where is questioning motive, issues of control, of the type of resolution and of the whole gamut of colliding desires. And there’s also the sheer romance of the journey with God with its turns and dips and dives, changingv vistas and moods. Ok let me stop there, getting too gooey?
“Is it that church should be one place of certainty, in the midst of a world of uncertainty?” This is worthy of discussion! Another blog on uncertainty and certainty in its own right would be merited.
This whole business of discernment and of faith is torture for many I feel. The church may posit (probably unwittingly) a single mode of discernment marginalizing the experience of many straight away. My wife does not ‘see’ things she has intuitions, the odd stray thought (some might say more than one – not me of course). Wisdom is demoted and personality unified.
It can end up creating a gap between individuals (experiences don’t match up to a prototype, I’m outside, I’m not ‘spiritual’), between an individual and God where embracing and becoming aware of God’s unique way of engagement with each person is not seen though it is under our very noses because we are looking for ‘that’. Do we become remote from ourselves ignoring desires, any number of senses, and any number of media. We become remote from ourselves, others and the church. Is that too bleak? Is that untrue?
I suspect there’s room here to talk about recovering a theology of the absence of God (he hides/he reveals/ he speaks/he is silent) s well as broadening our sense of the presence of God.
An overly developed emphasis on the transcendence of God (specifically the infilling of the Holy Spirit) to the detriment of earthy immanence (indwelling of God by the Holy Spirit) has left me overly restless, looking for more and the next thing, for something out there, for tomorrow and not attracted to contentment, the now, the here. Of all the things Jesus offers there is this one central idea of God and man in harmony, transcendence and immanence in one body, an example for me that says it is both and I can have both -drawn towards glory and content with what has been given.
The sense of journey is one which I can really relate to. Reading this post reminded me of a talk I heard about ‘crossroads’ many years ago. The speaker was exploring the concept of journey and how easy it is to become disorientated when approaching a crossroads in that journey. He went on to talk about how in Ireland the crossroads were a meeting place between rural communities who would often gather at the crossroads and celebrate, communicate, celidh etc. He encouraged us to ask why we find them places that frustrate us and why we don’t see the place of indecision as a resting place, a watering hole, a time for celebration but most importantly a time and opportunity to engage with others on that journey … to meet with them, to meet with God.
I love this concept of crossroads … what better way to set off on the next leg of a journey than this…?
I really like the notion of the place of indecision being a resting place.
I’ve found God’s guidance to be more about freedom (funny given my recent comment about slavery).
If we wait around to hear what we should be doing and what direction to take, we may never get anywhere. God gives us free will to start a journey and then guide us from there.
In starting my journeys I’ve thought I’ve known where I was headed, but God gently prompted me in another direction. It’s happened several times but it’s always been Him suggesting and me choosing. He opens doors and lets us choose whether we want to walk through them.
My guess is that for communities it’s similar. Would be interested to find out what others think.
Faith as a journey, isn’t so much twists and turns as gentle banks and leans. Just don’t look down . . .
Hey everyone - thanks so much for the comments and collective widsom. It is fantastic to read, and worthy of pausing to reflect and think. This is an incredible thing: sharing our experience of God’s leading and guiding, learning from one another, fellow travellers, in some small way resting at the crossroad, to talk a bit about what we have learned so far.
Paul - i love that image of the lamp. It seems so real. And it brings real value to others on the journey with us.
Andrew - love it. There is so much there that is worthy of mention, or separate blog posts. I will do something on certainty / uncertainty at some point. But i also love the tension between transcendence & imanance; infilling and indwelling; presence & absence.
Do you percieve that charismatic church is moving away from the unbalanced position you describe? Or do you think there is much more work to be done?
Anon - thanks. Again, what a great picture of the crossroads, and it being a place to meet others, to rest etc. It takes the pressure off having to find a way forward. I do wonder though, if at some point we need to move forward, even if we are still uncertain of which way, trusting the God will speak if we are goind in the “wrong” direction?
Dan - thanks for your comment. That has certainly been my experience too. The more i do it, the more i begin to trust that God really will direct my feet, if i start going to places that He doesn’t intend for me.
So for anyone still reading: why do you think that in churches there is an expectation for the leaders to have to all sorted? Or am I making that bit up (feeling the expectation where there is no expectation?)
re: moving on from the crossroads
absolutely - God gave us free will to choose and if we sat around waiting for confirmation of every step of the journey we would probably make little progress at all. the point is that most people are so frazzled by the decision making process that they often set of or embark upon new things exhausted … time to explore direction can be a great time if you submit to it and do not let it consume you to the point of utter frustration. enjoy each part of the journey … even when the way is not so clear there is still blessing to be had!
I wonder if in guidance our attention is overly concentrated on achievement, how to we get to our goal rather than on the playful tussle with God? Goals are good but oddly enough can be rather distracting! Most of my life seems to be a battle to keep goals from becoming monsters.
Jacob’s wrestle with God - where God came to him - seems like a testing of strength and of discovering dynamic face to face interaction and that through physicality. How invigorating and stimulating (though admittedly exhausting!) would that have felt like?
On Saturday I went to day which involved learning the Lord’s Prayer in Jesus’ language Aramaic, its sounds and some movements - chanting with gestures in short. Here the phrase ‘the wisdom of the body’ to use Dr Paul Brand’s phrase, came to centre stage and the notion of a more earthy guidance.
So, Rupert, I don’t hear or read much in Charismatic circles* about intuition, body awareness (eg stress, discomfort, breath) or giving heed to our own desires when considering matters of guidance. We’re more ‘heavenly’ (other) than this additional ‘earthy’ (close) stuff. Maybe we are denying incarnation, our very selves - the very stuff God created, redeemed and wishes to bind with!
* Am I deaf and blind?
I think your senses appear to be in full working order Andrew!
Anon - thanks for the additional point you make. You are so right about enjoying each part of the journey. I think so often we really want to live in the fruitful, blessed part … and when we aren’t in that part of the journey, we spend most of the time wishing we were. I love the image of resting at the crossroads.
Andrew - thanks for your comment too. Your comments have got me wondering what kind of image we have of God when we are thinking about guidance? If we emphasis “other” rather than “close” (or perhaps we should be holding those two in tension) does that mean we have an image of God like dictator / king / policeman???? Someone who is there primarily to tell us what to do?
And how does that change if we see him as Father? I guess in all these posts (and perhaps particulaly post 4), there is something i am exploring about us growing up. I don’t want to be telling my kids what to do when they are 20 years old … but i do hope that some of the values that we hold as important are so part of them, that they would do what i would do in any given situation.
So that would mean guidance does change as we grow and mature in our faith?