Mystery

Finding  God's will is often presented as a nice, simple straight shot. You find the right calling or career, marry the right person, and everything will just fall into place and follow in logical order. I have known people for whom it seemed to work that way. But often God leads us in complicated and convoluted ways for reasons we do not always understand. Elijah witnessed great miracles, but ended up depressed and discouraged because the people's response to them did not measure up to his expectations. Joseph had to go through many trials and setbacks before God made him vizier over all Egypt. David spent many years running from King Saul before he received the promised kingdom. Paul was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, but spent years waiting for it to come about. He was told at one point not to preach in Asia (Acts 16:6), but later spent two years preaching there (Acts 19:10). God is in control of our lives (Romans 8:28; Ephesians 2:10; 1:11), but He does not always lead us in simple ways we can understand. We can only trust Him (Proverbs 3:5,6; Psalms 37:3-6; Isaiah 40:31).