Just Do Something
Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will
By: Kevin DeYoung
Highly recommend! Very fast and easy read with great things to say, especially for young people who are constantly asked what they're going to do with their lives. It’s become our tradition to give this book to high school grads who so often face anxiety about the big decisions in their futures.
It's a freeing book that reassures you that you don't really have to have a plan- you just have to get off your butt, make a decision, and do something.
I’m about as indecisive as they come. I like to analyze all the data, consider all the options, and make the best choice. But that often causes paralysis. If we live our lives like this we often find ourselves not doing much because we don’t want to choose wrong, or make a mistake, or do something God doesn’t want us to.
So many of life’s choices are hard to determine a “right” choice because they aren’t necessarily ‘moral’ choices: what school to go to, what career to pursue, where to move, whether/when/who to marry, how to spend money, where to go to church?, etc.
It is biblical to desire to follow God’s will, but are we questioning ourselves into inaction?
“Too many of us have passed off our instability, inconsistency, and endless self-exploration as ‘looking for God’s will,’ as if not making up our minds and meandering through life were marks of spiritual sensitivity.”
‘God’s will’ has become somewhat an enigma of a phrase in Christian circles. Kevin DeYoung differentiates a few ‘sides’ of this capturing the tension of God’s soveriengty and human responsibility: the decree and the desire of God’s will.. Though to flesh it out is out of the scope of this book, he says, “If the will of decree is how things are, the will of desire is how things ought to be… Both sides of God’s will are in Scripture. God’s will of decree—what he has predetermined from eternity past—cannot be thwarted. God’s will of desire— the way He wants us to live—can be disregarded.”
So is it up to us to decipher this mysterious ‘will’ so that God is not disappointed with the lives we live? DeYoung says, “Yes, God has a specific plan for our lives. And yes, we can be assured that He works things for our good in Christ Jesus. And yes, looking back we will often be able to trace God’s hand in bringing us to where we are. But while we are free to ask God for wisdom, He does not burden us with the task of divining His will of direction for our lives ahead of time.”
He talks about reasons we’re obsessed with finding out what God’s direction of our lives, why it’s wrong, and what it should be. He highlights the dangers of laziness and of terminology that could take away accountability in our decision making. He affirms the importance of prayer and seeking God’s guidance as we make choices, touching on discerning God’s voice from ‘intuition’, and how to properly utilize wisdom.
And then, because work and marriage tend to be the two biggest questions, the last chapter is devoted to addressing those specifically.
Full of Scripture, this is the best, concise look at God’s will and how we can free ourselves from seeking a “perfect” life and trust God with all of our decisions, knowing we can follow God’s desire for our life wherever we are.
“So go marry someone, provided you’re equally yoked and you actually like being with each other. Go get a job, provided it’s not wicked. Go live somewhere in something with somebody or nobody. But put aside the passivity and the quest for complete fulfillment and the perfectionism and the preoccupation with the future, and for God’s sake start making some decisions in your life. Don’t wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God’s will, so just go out and do something.”
“The only chains God wants us to wear are the chains of righteousness—not the chains of hopeless subjectivism, not the shackles of risk-free living, not the fetters of horoscope decision making— just the chains befitting a bond servant of Christ Jesus. Die to self. Live for Christ. And then do what you want, and go where you want, for God’s glory.”