Red Light, Green Light

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. –Joshua 1:9

Have you ever thought about the real meaning of traffic lights? When the youth group took their trip to Pittsburgh last month, the sermon we heard on Sunday morning was about this very thing. Green lights usually mean go. Yellow lights, of course, mean go faster (not really). And red lights mean stop, stop, stop! If you're a Christian, you know that we move about our lives in search of the will of God. Sometimes God seems far away, and sometimes he seems right next to us. I've heard the will of God described as a large tree with many branches. If you are indeed truly seeking him with your life, all of the branches you can take lead back to him at the root.

But, we get caught up in the details. “I just don’t know if I should go to this college. I want to do God’s will.” We usually pin God’s will down to the one specific thing he would like us to do. However, I am of the opinion that if you are seeking him, you are in God’s will. His influence over your life will guide you in the right direction. God’s will for your life is bigger than that one specific thing you have in your mind. This is where the traffic lights come into play. Say you’re thinking about that new job opportunity. You’ve been praying and “seeking God’s will.” Then you read a scripture passage like, “stay and bloom where you’ve been planted.” To me, that throws up a serious yellow or even a red light, depending on the situation.

I've really been getting into the book of Proverbs in my daily Bible reading calendar. If you want to know something about God’s understanding, read Proverbs. It's full of common sense and truth to pull you back out of your own little world and back into reality. It lets you know that God will never leave you, but you are fully capable of leaving God. So the next time you feel that God is far from you, you can know with all certainty that you were the one that moved. And in order to get back to him, you have to seek him. There’s no other way around it.

Joshua was brand new at leading the people of Israel. He was obviously nervous after seeing what happened to Moses. And in Joshua chapter 1, God reassures Joshua that he'll be with him wherever he goes. So it is with us. Don’t fret the small stuff. If what you’ve got planned is going to glorify God, he'll honor it. I have seen it countless times in events here at the church and also with weeks of camp and VBS. God is indeed with us, all we have to do is stop, look, and listen.