#22 - Do Whatever You Want {Reflections}

What is up everybody?

Ryan here, and I am ready for episode number.

I don't know what episode are we on, mike, it's like 22 double deuces.

This is like a.

This is a milestone man 22, and today I want to.

I just have come to tell you, wherever you are, whatever you're doing in the moment, I'm just gonna tell you.

So listen up, hey, today, do whatever you want.

I mean it, do whatever you want.

There's one caveat, though, but here's, here's what I would say.

Years ago, my wife and I were a part of a ministry called youth, with a mission or why?

Wham, and it's an interdominational missions organization, and we spent, I think, about eight years there in total, and there are locations all over the world, but I went to the far.

You know the distant.

Why I went Denver.

I grew up in Aurora, so I went about literally like 30 minutes away.

I didn't know there were other locations around the world.

I could have gone to Hawaii, I could have gone to Thailand.

No, I went to our Vata, colorado, to the why we have Denver base, but I'm not really bad or bitter about it not very much, but anyway, one of the, I think, the things that I inherited at my time during my time at why I am was to, I mean, in the best way, to learn to listen for the voice of God.

It was great, we would pray and expect God to speak to us and all kinds of ways, and I love that.

But also there was like this subterranean, I think, notion that you really shouldn't do much or make major decisions in your life until you hear God tell you to do them.

And so I think always and it wasn't like explicit but implicit in all the conversations and even praying and the theology of prayers and that was this idea that, hey, you shouldn't really do any major things until you hear God tell you to do that.

And so we, that's what we did.

We, for years we were on staff with why I'm Denver, and I'm so grateful for it, but we remained for a long time because we never felt like God told us to leave, although towards the end we began to get an itch to go, we kind of wanted to leave, but we just sort of kept holding on because we had this implicit, I guess, bias towards staying until God told us to go.

And then one day I was, I had this great privilege to have dinner with a pastor who's from Minneapolis.

His name is Greg Boyd.

He's excellent.

He's a theologian and a scholar and a pastor.

You should read any books you can by him.

His church is in Maplewood area, but anyway, he and I had dinner together in Denver, just he and I, and it was great.

I was a young guy.

We went out to dinner and I was kind of telling him this yeah, we kind of me and Katie kind of want to try some new things and stretch our legs, but we don't want to go anywhere until God tells us to go.

And then he laughed at me.

He goes oh, is that how you think it works, ryan?

And I was like, uh, well, I, I did right up until you laughed at me right there.

And I go what do you think?

And he goes listen man, here's what I think he said.

It's like Augustine, the great saint and church father, said Augustine said hey, love God.

I don't know if he said hey or not, hey, but he said hey, love God and love others and do whatever you want.

And the moment Greg said that, that night at dinner we were at the olive no, we were at the macaroni grill.

I felt this huge burden, like lift off of my shoulders, like I couldn't really do whatever I want, he goes yeah, here's the caveat Love God and love others and do whatever you want, like so many of us are like, are like just tied up in knots to try to discover the will of God for our lives.

And I would remind you of this quote too.

That was from the Lynn family.

They have a book called Sleeping with Brad.

I think I've mentioned it before somewhere, but read it, it's awesome.

They just said this your desire to do the will of God is the will of God.

So the minute that you are like all right, god, I'm in, I wanna do your will.

Like that desire to do God's will, that's God's will, that he would have your heart, he'd have your attention, he'd have your calendar.

Your desire to do God's will is what God wants.

And then it's like he's like all right, now we're playing with house money.

Do whatever you want.

You wanna go start on orphanage in Florida Great.

You wanna work at Pizza Hut and manage your staff and love on them and be a blessing to them and make great pizza Awesome.

Whatever you wanna do, love God and love others and do it.

And some folks like, yeah, but Ryan, does that mean I can go ahead and start a drug ring and murder people and have many extramarital affairs Like no dude?

That's not what I'm saying, of course not, because that's not loving God and that is not loving others.

So if you do those two things, then anything underneath that umbrella will be just fine.

So if you're out there today and you're like I don't know what I wanna do with my life, I don't know God's will is for my life.

I'm not gonna do anything until God tells me to.

I would say this as you walk, of course, keep your cell phone on, not literally like keep your ears open to what God might say as he directs your path, but trust in the goodness of God and the grace of God and love God and love others and do whatever you want.

And as you go, I believe that God will guide you.

If you're going the wrong direction, god will probably most certainly, as he's done with me, come in and be like oh, I'm gonna close that door.

Okay, I'll go this way, as it has happened in scriptures before too.

So, but all you're intending to do then I would say, is just to love God and love others and do whatever you want.

So, mike and myself, and anybody listening to this today, whatever you do, go love God and go love others and do whatever you want.

All right, love you guys, peace.

Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share with some friends.

And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our local gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clclriverorg.

Peace.