Have you ever been faced with a situation where you want to know what God wants you to do, but can’t figure out what His opinion is? Have you prayed like crazy, read the Bible, and racked your brain about what decision to make? Even though the decision might be smaller than it seems, it’s still important, at least to you.
A little while ago, I finished reading the book Just Do Something by Jevin DeYoung. I had been hearing about this book for a while--it was recommended in my writing community. I knew it was a relevant book and I had heard a lot of good things about it, so I finally decided to read it.
A Call to Stop Overthinking
Just Do Something addresses a common problem among Christians today--the tendency to overthink decisions. Although God does have a specific plan for us, we sometimes assume that our job is to discover His will for certain situations and follow it to the tee.
God knows every decision we’re going to make, and He cares about every aspect of our lives, but He doesn’t expect us to worry about making the “right” decision in every situation. In many situations, there are two good choices, where we can glorify God through either choice.
God has already revealed His will to us--in Matthew 22:37-40, He says the greatest commandment is to love Him with all of our heart, mind, and strength, and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.
God cares whether we’re obeying that commandment. He cares about how we will be able to glorify Him through the decisions we make much more than about the decision itself. The question isn’t which Christian friend group we should join, but whether we are a good friend and love others once in the friend group. It isn’t which classes we take, but whether we will work hard and glorify God in them. It isn’t which sport we pursue, but whether we glorify God through the sport we choose.
The author says that it is God’s will for us to serve Him in whatever situation we might be put in. Whatever school, family, or town we might be in, our job is to serve God there and show His love to others.
A lot of people our age are thinking about what college they want to go to, what classes they want to take, or what they want to invest their time in becoming better at. There are some decisions that are black and white--for example, it would not glorify God if we decided only to fill our minds with secular media--TV shows with violence, books with false worldviews, etcetera.
But there are some decisions--for example, whether we should take creative writing class or marketing class, where we could glorify God through both options. We shouldn’t worry about about messing up God’s plan by making the wrong choice in these situations because God’s plan can’t be messed up.
The author writes that because Christians spend too much time thinking about the specific step God wants us to take, we miss opportunities from God. God gives us opportunities for a reason, and we should take them. According to DeYoung, Christians to stop overthinking decisions and just do something.
We try to make decisions that will bring us the most fulfillment, but fulfillment doesn’t come from going to the right college, choosing the right classes, and having the perfect family. In fact, you could have all of those things and still be unhappy. Fulfillment comes from finding our joy in Jesus and not expecting to have a perfect life, but looking forward to better things to come.
#1 Takeaway: Faithfulness
There were a couple of practical applications I took away from this book, but the main thing that stood out to me was to be faithful.
The book showed me that there are many ways to glorify God. I could become a lawyer, a doctor, a writer, or a teacher and glorify God in different ways through each career. I could choose to go to a plethora of different colleges, and I don’t have to worry about picking “the wrong one,” because God will use me for His plan wherever I go.
I don’t have to stress about finding out God’s plan for every detail of my life. I don’t have to worry that I’m going to choose the wrong thing or settle for second best--because if I’m faithful to God, that is the best decision I could make.
Just Do Something encourages readers to be mature. Instead of waiting for just the right opportunity at just the right time to come, we need to step forward and make decisions. If we like a good Christian person, we should pursue a relationship with them. If we enjoy math and we can glorify God through it, it would be God-honoring to pursue a career in that, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t honor God through another career. If we like playing a sport and can glorify God through it, it would honor God to work on getting better in that sport.
Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung was a book that changed my life in a little way and shifted my perspective on some things. It was a truly God-glorifying book and was something that many Christians today need.