Big Ears Are BeautifulSample

Get the Garden right

Even with the clarity of hearing the Lord’s leading through His Word, Spirit, and people, we can become fearful of making the wrong decision. Truthfully, we need to calm down instead of tense up. If we look back to the beginning of human history in the Garden of Eden, we find an interesting glimpse of God’s will. God does something that we have not thought deeply about.

God tells Adam and Eve to eat from any tree in the Garden except one. God’s will for the first couple was to choose from numerous good things but stay away from the forbidden one. Good trees as far as the eye can see, one prohibited, and it is even identified for them. No tricks or deception. A right choice will not unknowingly become wrong.

Instead of breathing a sigh of relief over the tremendously good choices that outweigh the one bad choice, we reverse the garden. Unintentionally, maybe even with a heart of extreme focus, we have created a garden with one good tree and innumerable bad ones. With this perspective, seeking God’s will becomes an anxious search for the needle in the haystack. We have made the hay the sin and the needle His plan.

With this way of thinking, jealousy can form when we hear a friend yell, “Found it!” in regard to God’s will, causing us to either search harder or give up in discouragement. How could they have found it when we didn’t? Why did they get the raise, the spouse, the baby, the attention or award instead of us? But God’s will is not intended to be illusive or hidden. It is not just for a few people to discover. When someone else finds His plan, it doesn’t make it harder for us. We act like there are only 10 boxes of God’s will on the shelf and with every purchase by someone else we are at greater risk of an empty shopping cart.

His will isn’t one hidden tree; it is a woodland. We can celebrate the job promotion or new chapter of life of a friend. A single can enjoy the kids and marriage of someone else without a “Why not me?” The blessings of another can bring a “Good for you” instead of a “Where’s mine?” The trees are bountiful; each blessing of another is not “Timbeeeeer!” for your life.