For anyone seeking to live a spiritual life is, “What is God up to in my life.” I often ask it to those that I pastor, especially when I get them one-on-on: “What is God up to in your life?” Or, if they are going through some sort of particular rough patch in life, “What do you think God is doing in you during this season?” I find it to be a great, open-ended doorway into some meaningful conversation.
Not surprisingly, the individual I’m talking to doesn’t often have a solid answer. And—if we’re being honest here—neither do I whenever my spiritual director asks me such questions. I don’t ask such questions because I’ve cracked the code, but because I’m always seeking the same understanding for myself.
Life is anything but linear or rational. Even a life with Jesus doesn’t always make sense. Understanding what he is doing in and around us, in my experience at least, is rarely clear. So we ask questions of God. And sometimes we get responses like this:
“You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
Jesus (John 13:17)
Which can feel like a non-answer. Or an evasion. It’s certainly not the bullet-point list of God’s good purposes or goals that we’d hope for. But it does affirm two deeply foundational things: God is doing something. And while we might feel like it’s all happening in the shadows, just beyond our perception, one day the lights will flip on.
The purpose of asking the question, “God, what are you up to in my life?” is not primarily to get an immediate and clear response. Although, that would be nice. No. It’s purpose is to keep us receptive and attentive, and to strengthen our resolve to make it to “later.”
