God’s will vs Growth
- God’s will
- “to seek and obey the will of God”
- Growth
- “to keep changing and growing”
You feel a pull to change. Maybe a new idea unsettles an old belief. Maybe you want to build a skill that does not fit the path you felt called to, or move away from the place you were raised. At the same time, you want to do what God asks of you, not just what you want. The two can collide when growing seems to mean leaving behind something you see as a matter of obedience.
On Even Over’s map, God’s will sits in the Tradition area, on the side of keeping things steady, while Growth sits in an area about thinking for yourself, on the side of openness to change.
What makes this pair sharp is where the final word comes from. With God’s will, the answer is meant to come from outside you. You listen, you wait, you yield. That guards you against your own passing wants, and it ties you to a faith and a people larger than one life. With Growth, the answer comes from your own testing. You try, you learn, you change your mind. That guards you against going stale and against holding views you never really looked at.
The choice is hard because each one can look like the other. You may see growth as part of what God asks of you. Or you may see a restless urge to change as the very thing to resist. Doubt is the tricky part. When questions come, is asking them a way to grow, or a drift from the path? Feeling alone cannot settle it, because both the call and the urge can feel like they come from deep inside you.
When a change you want and what you believe God asks of you point different ways, which one gets the last word, and which one do you let question the other?
What choosing one over the other tends to mean
God’s will over Growth
If you put God’s will above Growth, you let your sense of what God asks set the limits on how and where you change. You may turn down a move, a course or a new idea that seems to pull you from your faith. You gain a steady center and a way to check your wants against something beyond them. The cost is that some growth stays untried, and later you may wonder whether a refusal came from God or from fear.
Growth over God’s will
If you put Growth above God’s will, you keep testing and changing, even when it unsettles what you were taught or what you felt called to do. You may take the new role, read the hard book, or rethink a belief in the open. You gain room to become more fully yourself and to own your views. The cost is that you may lose the rest that comes from yielding to something larger, and people in your faith community may feel you have walked away.
Where they collide
A role that means moving away
You are offered a job that would stretch you in new ways. Taking it means leaving a place where you serve in your faith community, a role you believe you were called to. Staying feels faithful. Going feels like the next step in who you are becoming.
New ideas at the family table
You have been reading ideas that change how you see a teaching your family holds dear. You could share them openly as part of how you are growing. Or you could hold back for now and pray for guidance before you say anything that might shake the family’s shared faith.
One free evening, two pulls
A class that would build a skill you have wanted for years meets on the same night as a prayer group you joined. The class would push you somewhere new. The group keeps you rooted in seeking what God asks. You only have room for one this season.
An example even-over principle
God’s will even over Growth. When a chance to stretch myself would pull me away from what I believe I am called to do, I will pray on it for a week before I decide. I accept that some chances will pass while I wait.
One example of the format, not advice. In Even Over you write your own, for the pairs your choices show.