"Love God and do what you want." - St. Augustine

The above quote is one of the guiding principles of my life. You might even call it my "life verse," even though I know it's sacrilegious to have a life verse that's not from the Bible. At the heart of this quote is a beautiful little something called providence.

You see, I believe that God gives us the freedom to live whatever the heck kind of life we want to live, and that no matter what choice we make, God will be there, and He will bless us and make us a blessing. Obviously, I'm not talking about the freedom to sin. I'm referring to those amoral situations in which both choices are feasible for us as Christians. For example, why are Jane and I serving in this country, and not the country to the north of us, or why not Germany or Ecuador or Nigeria? To be frank - because we wanted to! To claim that God would want us to be in a specific country would imply that we would be sinning - SINNING! - if we served as missionaries in another country. I can already see us at the Pearly Gates:

God: Well, Joe and Jane, I see here that you served as missionaries for 35 years. You were faithful in your ministry, you served with all our strength, and even when you retired, you still went back there twice a year to continue encouraging the believers there.

Joe: Happy to be of service, Sir. Or is it Your Lordship? Abba? I'm sorry, I'm still not sure what to call you.

God: Never mind that. My point is, I wanted you in Spain! BAD missionary. BAD! No soup for you! NEXT!

This applies to anything in life: If you claim that God wants you to pick choice A over choice B, then you are sinning if you choose choice B. I pity the person who prays to God for guidance as to which outfit or suit to wear each day!

No, no, my friends - we are free! We don't have to live a life of uncertainty, fretting over every little decision. James tells us that if we need wisdom, we should "ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (Jas 1:5). So pray for wisdom, trust that God has given it to you, and make your decision! George MacDonald also said something that works in harmony with the Augustine quote above: "The birth of action is the beginning of the death of doubt." When you move forward, you will get an idea whether or not your current course of action is best. Trust that God has given you His wisdom, and enjoy being free!

Joe Missionary is written by a real-life career missionary in Asia. His goal is to bring missionaries off of their pedestals by showing you that they're all just regular people with the same struggles you face. Free theology rant every Thursday.