Recommended: ‘Just Do Something’ by Kevin DeYoung
June 1st, 2009
Kevin DeYoung’s new book, “Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will,” offers sound counsel to those who struggle to make decisions about such matters as jobs, marriage, school, etc. DeYoung sees the problem of too many people sitting around trying to discern the will of God for their lives and paralyzed by the fear that they’ll make a wrong decision. In reality, he says Christians need to spend more time pursuing Jesus, using the brains God gave them and then moving forward with life.
A few quotes that I found to be particularly insightful:
God is not a Magic8-Ball we shake up and peer into whenever we have a decision to make. He is a good God who gives us brains, shows us the way of obedience, and invites us to take risks for Him.
—-
If you think that God has promised this world will be a five-star hotel, you will be miserable as you live through the normal struggles of life. But if you remember that God promised we would be pilgrims and this world may feel more like a desert or even a prison, you might find your life surprisingly happy.
—-
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.
—-
“Just Do Something” is a helpful book, and I commend to it you. It would be especially helpful for teenagers, college students and young adults.
I also highly recommend Kevin’s blog, as well as an excellent sermon Kevin preached at Union University in the fall and another book that Kevin co-wrote with Ted Kluck, “Why We’re Not Emergent.” I wrote about that book previously.
I often tell my students that they have converted the pursuit of “God’s will” into a neo-paganism worthy of the best Wodenist or Delphic congregant. My advice is always, “If you don’t know what to do, do something great for God’s glory. You’ll never be more free to find this so-called “elusive will” than you are now.
And don’t even get me started about the whole obsession with “finding The One” in marriage. It’s not biblical, that’s for sure. It’s NeoPlatonic and lies at the very root of much of our divorce problem in the church. The one you marry is “the one.” That may not be “romantic,” but it is biblical.