"Vuja De"

Everybody's heard of "deja vu" - that strange feeling of "I've done this before" that pops up every now and then at the oddest moments.

But I had never heard of "vuja de" until this weekend.  Some creative soul coined the term to indicate that feeling which is the opposite of deja vu - while in the midst of very familiar territory, you see something brand new ... as if for the first time.

I have experienced sporadic deja vu in my lifetime - but lately, vuja de seems to be a pretty common occurrence!

It actually started two years ago on the flight back to Florida after my first week in Haiti.  And it was with a basic concept that should matter greatly to every believer.  It was one which I thought I had a pretty good grip on and one (I thought) I had devoted quite a bit of prayer to - at least since my college days.  That concept was "God's will".

I had learned during my senior year in college how important it was to seek God's will for my life in prayer.  Long story short:  With three weeks to go before graduation from Wabash College my student teaching fell apart and my professor said she would not be recommending me for a teaching license!  So with less than a month until I would be booted into "the real world", I had no hope of finding the job for which my four years at Wabash had "prepared" me.

I was more than slightly upset and slightly confused.  I took a long walk one night, making slow circles around campus and I let God have it.  I was angry.  I whined and fussed at God about why He had allowed all this to happen.  And I got a reply.  A rebuke.

"I don't know why you're angry with me - you never once asked me if you were supposed to be a teacher." 

It was true.  The biggest decision of my life to that point and I had never once consulted God about it in prayer!  (Incidentally, when I started to pray about my career path - which I did immediately - that is when He directed me toward youth ministry.  And, praise God, He obviously didn't allow to go to waste those four years studying to become a teacher.)

So, like I said, I had learned the importance of prayer in determining God's will for my life.  But then two years ago, the Lord started to show me how very limiting those three words had been in regard to my understanding of God's will: "for my life". 

Whenever I read anything in Scripture about "God's will", in my mind I assumed it had to do with what job God would want me to take, what girl to marry, what house to buy, etc.  All the various forks in the road where we need wisdom and discernment. 

And this understanding of God's will is not foreign to Scripture: "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" (James 4:13-15)

So when I experienced vuja de on the plane ride two years ago, it was that my eyes suddenly viewed "God's will" in a much wider perspective. 

All of a sudden the phrase "God's will" had much more to do with the Great Commission than with which house God wanted me to pick when we moved to a new town.  My new eyes saw "God's will" as being synonymous with much grander and more critical enterprises ... like caring for the poor, setting the oppressed free, and preaching the Gospel. 

"God's will" was no longer only about me trying to discern His steering in the particulars of my life decisions but rather me devoting my life towards those desires that drive Him. 

Now when I read Scripture, it seems that most often, the phrase "God's will" is used like Paul's claim to the believers in Ephesus before his departure: "I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God." (Acts 20:27)  Obviously, Paul had been preaching about God's great priorities for the human race, not a detailed roadmap for each listener's life. 

This could be a rather academic distinction except for the fact that believers are meant to DO the will of God, and primarily in this second and broader sense!  Jesus told His followers:  "As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me." (John 9:4)

WE!  You and me and Jesus - all single-mindedly pursuing God's priorities in this fallen and broken world for whatever brief time we have.  And THAT is where this vuja de experience two years ago really GOT me.  Because I had to admit that even though I went to church and small group regularly and I cracked my Bible open now and then (and felt guilty that it wasn't more often - or more... real), my life priorities were all about juggling schedules and keeping the house in repair and earning a pay check and, overall, being comfortable.

Much of these last two years has been about the Lord opening my eyes to all the many places in my life where I need to ditch my priorities whenever and wherever they compete with His.  I trust I have much to learn yet, but it's been a great ride so far. 

Lord, keep on bringing the vuja de!


P.S.  Even the most familiar passages of Scripture always have the potential for striking us anew (which is one of the things that makes reading the Bible so fascinating).  What do we mean exactly when we pray the way Jesus taught us: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"?  Will God's kingdom come once everyone finds the "right" job and marries the "right" spouse and settles into the "right" house?  Can we legitimately PRAY for God's will to be done while we DO little towards that end?

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." - Jesus in Matthew 7:21