My name is Brandan, I am 31 years old, and I don’t know what I am doing.
That might seem a little strange to hear, coming from a Pastor, but it’s true.
And in my experience, after over a decade of doing Pastoral work, getting the privilege to sit with people young and not so young and learn about their lives, I’ve come to realize that none of us know what we’re doing in life in general.
Sure, many of us have plans that we use to help guide our lives- but our plans are often thrown off course and interrupted, aren’t they?
Or maybe you’ve followed your plan closely, achieved what you always desired to achieve, and now find yourself sitting at the finish line saying “now what?”
Or maybe you’ve never been the planning type- maybe your life has been lived a bit more adventurously, responding to life’s circumstances and opportunities, rather than aiming for any particularly goal or idea for what your life should be.
Whatever the case, whether we lived our lives according to some meticulous plan or we allow the winds to guide our path, the truth is that at every stage of our lives, every one of us will find ourselves wondering, “What the heck am I doing? How did I get here? Where am I going?”
As kids, we seem to believe that the grown ups in the world know what they’re doing- that somehow, over the course of their lives, they’ve been come experts at living life, being responsible, and knowing what choices to make.
Even in your twenties, you will look at people in their fifties and feel like “ah, there’s hope that someday I will know what I am doing.”
But what I’ve come to realize, sitting with people in their sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties is that no one knows what they’re doing.
But just because no one knows what they’re doing, doesn’t mean that everyone lives their lives unmoored, or without a sense of direction or stability.
Because while it’s true that God does not give humans a user manual that tells us how to live each and every day and make each and every decision, God has also not left us alone to wander aimlessly.
In fact, God has given us something far better than a user manual or a rule book- God has promised that he himself will assist us in guiding our lives, leading us towards our purpose, and helping us make the myriad of choices that each of us are presented with every single day of our lives.
Yet most people- including many Christians- don’t rely on God’s gift of his presence to help orient our lives.
Most people do wander aimlessly or seek to create their own path using their own strength, and most people find that they lose strength, veer off course, or find themselves perplexed again and again, unsure of what they should do to with their lives.
We have a gift- our very Creator has promised time and time again to shepherd us- to help guide us in our lives, and yet most of us continually ignore God’s presence and choose to chart our own path on our own strength- and we run ourselves ragged.
You see, dear friends, our lives are not meant to be a constant struggle.
Our lives are not meant to be a constant burden.
Our lives are not meant to full unmoored and out of control.
They don’t have to feel that way.
We have the choice to rely on God’s presence, to invite God’s guidance, and to trust the voice of God’s Spirit in our lives each and every day, and that can help us have stability, clarity, confidence, and peace as we walk the road of life.
We don’t need to know what exactly were doing or where exactly were going- but we need to know who we’re allowing to be in the driver seat of our lives.
Our society puts so much emphasis on putting ourselves in the driver’s seat- we focus on self-empowerment, helping individuals to make their own choices, follow their own impulses, and do whatever they want- and that’s supposed to be the key to a flourishing life.
But I don’t know about you- but when I look around, I see fewer people empowered, fewer people flourishing, fewer people walking with a sense of direction in their lives- despite the fact that most people would claim they believe in themselves and are “taking control” of their lives.
The whole downside of self-empowerment is that it is based on the idea that we, ourselves, know what we’re doing.
But we’ve already established that we don’t.
And the invitation of today’s Scripture is to admit that we don’t know- that when we’re left to ourselves and our own devices, we might sometimes make the right choices, but more often than not, we will be confused, disoriented, and veer off the right path.
And from that place of admission, to invite God to be our shepherd- placing all of our trust in him, surrendering our lives, our goals, our hopes to him, and allowing God to lead us, to open the doors that need to be opened and shut the doors that need to be shut.
Because the truth is that you can’t orchestrate your own life- you can try, but you can’t do it.
Because life happens. Circumstance change. Other people intervene.
But God, who can see the end from the beginning, in who we live and move and have our very being within- can.
You’ve likely heard the words of Psalm 23 before- our scripture begins:
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
King David, the author of this Psalm, begins with a declaration: God is his shepherd.
King David is making a decision to stop trying to control his own life- if you know anything about the story of David, any time he tried to take control of his life, he messed it up royally. (Pun intended)
But when he trusted in God, and followed God’s promptings in his life, he did the impossible- he defeated Goliath, he led the people of Israel into victory- none of this was planned, and David was seen as small, weak, and without much of a future at the beginning of his life.
But young David learned not to trust in the voice of others around him, nor to trust in his own ideas or plans, but to seek God’s guidance and leading- and it led him to become the greatest King in the history of Israel.
The same is true for you and me.
When we surrender our lives into God’s hands, when we wake up each day and pray “Not my will but yours be done”, and then watch for the places God invites us, and allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit, we will see our lives unfold in miraculous and unexpected ways.
My friend, pastor and author Marianne Williamson says this another way. Each day she wakes up and begins by praying these words:
“Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say? And to whom?”
The message here is the same: living each day in a posture of surrender rather than control.
When you try to orchestrate your own life, you will force yourself into places that you’re not intended to be.
When you try to make success happen, or healing happen, or relationships flourish- it usually doesn’t work.
But when you open yourself to the Spirit of God, invite God to guide you, and then pay attention and respond to where you’re guided- flourishing happens!
This is not just something you need to “believe”- you can test this out.
God wants to guide you. God will guide you- if you invite him each and every day.
King David declares his posture- “God is my shepherd”, he says, and after that he makes a faith claim, “therefore, I shall not want.”
In other words, he’s saying that if God is guiding me, I am going to be okay.
If God is guiding me, all that I need will be provided for.
If I am truly seeking God first, then as Jesus said, every other thing will be added unto me.
And this is the freedom that we can have when we live trusting in God.
We can live in peace, not worrying about what we need, or if we’ll have enough, or if we’re prepared enough for what lies ahead- no, we can say by faith, we have no wants, we have no needs, because we know God will provide for us in the moment of need.
You see, a good shepherd doesn’t lead his sheep into danger.
A good shepherd doesn’t lead his sheep into drought.
A good shepherd doesn’t lead his sheep off a cliff.
A good shepherd provides for and protects his sheep at all costs- so that all the sheep need to do is to follow.
To keep their eyes on the shepherd.
To trust in the leadership of their shepherd.
And the same is true for us.
If you live a life surrendered to God, allowing guide to guide you each and every day, and trusting wherever God leads you even if it doesn’t make sense to you in the moment- the promise is that God will always give you what you need.
God will always provide you the means to obey.
God will always make a way for you.
And that allows us to live a life of freedom and confidence- because our flourishing, our success, our wellbeing- none of it relies on us.
God is in control.
God is our guide.
God will take care of it.
We just need to trust in him and obey him.
Again, I know that this can sound too good to be true.
I know it can sound naïve.
But when we live a life fully relying on God, we are enabled to walk with peace, with freedom, with a sense of purpose, and the knowledge that our shepherd has a plan for us
So what does this actually look like?
How do we surrender to God and allow him to take control of our lives?
It’s really simple – and it’s really hard, like most things in faith.
All that it takes is to open yourself to God each day, in your heart saying “Take my life, guide me, show me what you would have me to do.”
If you can begin the day in surrender, and then keep a posture of surrender throughout the day, the invitation then is to listen for the still small voice of God nudging you- he will be there, I promise.
You might get a random nudge to go talk to a person- do it.
You might get an idea that pops into your head out of nowhere- follow it.
You might feel convicted about a decision you’ve made and you feel like you need to go a different path- do it.
Throughout the day, make space to repeat the prayer, “God, guide me”, as a way to recenter yourself and listen for God’s voice.
And any time you feel yourself wanted to take the reigns, to force something to happen, to do something impulsive- resist, offer that thought or feeling up to God- and ask God to give you guidance.
The more you do this, the more you’ll hear God’s voice clearly.
The more you do this, the more you’ll find God guiding your path.
The more you do this, the more you will sense that your life has a peace to it that it simply cannot when you’re trying to control it.
Because we humans were not made to be in control of our lives- we are but sheep, called to follow our shepherd.
So stop bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders.
Stop feeling like you need to know all of the right answers.
That’s not your job, dear sheep.
Your job is to trust God.
To obey God.
And to rely fully on God- because he is your shepherd.
And as you do, you will find that everything you need will be provided for you.
Because our God is good.
Amen?