The Way of the Warrior: An Ancient Path to Inner Peace

by Erwin Raphael McManus

Imagine having an infinite number of futures right in front of you and each one of them is as easily accessible as the others. All you have to do is choose one. The challenge is that all of them are invisible to you and are perceivable only by the material that you bring into the moment. Historically, we have been taught to think of the will of God from a linear perspective. His will becomes more of a tightrope that we either walk on or fall off of. It’s this kind of limited view of the future that causes us to speak in terms of God’s perfect will and God’s permissive will. Once you have fallen off the tightrope of his perfect will, all you are left with is a merciful version of a divine plan B. The future is more beautifully complex than that. It makes perfect sense that an infinite God would have an infinite number of beautiful futures awaiting us. In fact, one of the most reassuring promises in Scripture is that God can create the most beautiful future out of our imperfection and brokenness. When Paul says that we will be able to test and approve God’s good, perfect will for our lives, we think of one path, one line, one road. What if the future is far more complex and beautiful than this? What if there is an endless number of futures awaiting us but the portal through which we enter into those futures is shaped by the choices we make? Paul connects having a new mind with creating a new future. The future is not linear; it is dynamic. The future is not determined; it is...