Genuineness vs God’s will
- Genuineness
- “to act in a manner that is true to who I am”
- God’s will
- “to seek and obey the will of God”
You may sense a path that feels like you, and at the same time sense a call that points somewhere else. One says to act from who you are. The other says the self is not the final word. They can collide when you feel asked to forgive before you are ready, to stay in a hard commitment, to take up work you did not pick, or to keep a practice after the feeling behind it has gone quiet.
On Even Over’s map, Genuineness sits in an area about choosing for yourself what you do, and God’s will sits in an area about keeping up the customs of your faith, on the opposite side.
Genuineness guards against a borrowed life. It keeps you from saying words you do not mean, or wearing a role like a costume because others expect it. It asks that your outside match your inside, even when that is awkward.
God’s will guards against making your moods the measure of everything. It offers a guide that holds steady when your feelings shift. It carries a kind of humility: the sense that you may not see the whole picture, and that being faithful can mean growing into someone you are not yet.
What makes this pair hard is that both speak the language of truth and obedience. One listens to an inner voice, the other to a voice beyond you, and they can blur. Some find God’s will inside their truest self. Others find it is often the very thing that asks them to set that self aside. When a wish rises, you may not know if it comes from your deeper self or from a passing want. When a duty presses, you may not know if it is faith or only worry about what others think.
When the person you feel yourself to be and what you believe God asks point different ways, which would you rather have to answer for later: a choice that felt untrue to you, or a choice that felt unfaithful?
What choosing one over the other tends to mean
Genuineness over God’s will
If you put Genuineness above God’s will, you tend to act only when a choice feels honest from the inside. You may step back from a role or practice that has become hollow, even if it was handed down with love. You gain a life whose outside matches its inside. The cost is that you may lose a steady guide when your feelings are unclear, and some people you share a faith with may feel you have drifted from them.
God’s will over Genuineness
If you put God’s will above Genuineness, you tend to follow what you believe is asked of you, even when it does not feel like you yet. You may keep a practice through dry seasons or accept a path you would not have chosen. You gain a steady guide and a sense of being part of something larger. The cost is that you may sometimes act in ways that feel unlike yourself, and you may wonder whether you are living out a faith or a script.
Where they collide
A calling that does not fit
At work, a role opens that you feel drawn to as a way to serve, but it does not match your gifts or what lights you up. Another path feels much more like you. You weigh whether to take the role you sense you are called to, or the one that feels true to who you are.
A family ritual you now doubt
At a family meal, everyone joins in a prayer you no longer feel sure about. Joining keeps faith with a practice you were raised in and may still hope to grow back into. Staying quiet feels more honest to where you are now. You decide what to do, and what to say if someone asks.
Asked to lead in your community
Your faith community asks you to lead a group. You sense this may be what God wants, yet you feel unready, and saying yes would mean speaking with a confidence you do not feel. You weigh accepting and growing into it, or saying plainly that you are not there yet.
An example even-over principle
God’s will even over Genuineness. When a choice I feel sure about runs against what I believe God asks, I will wait a week and pray about it before I act. I accept that I will sometimes do things that do not feel like me.
One example of the format, not advice. In Even Over you write your own, for the pairs your choices show.