john 13 (his will and all)

We like to imagine God’s Will for our life as some beautifully detailed book, written full of pleasures and joys and trials, and ending with the name of our spouse spelled out in gold filigree under the chapter entitled, “Happily Ever After.” 

The concept of a divine, yet ambiguous Will that we are expected to discover by some means- and no one really knows what these means are- is a popular idea in Christian culture.

However, I have come to a place in my life where this overly specific plan has turned from a supposed ethereal comfort into a hellish anxiety. 

If God has all of these things planned out for me, how am I supposed to disover them? 

What if I choose the wrong college? 

The wrong spouse? 

The wrong career? 

As these decisions come closer to impacting my current reality, I have become increasingly worried about them. Through this season, I have tried every day to put these worries into God’s hands; to trust Him with the details of His Will, since it is His and all, ya know? 

But what if instead of needing to give these worries over, they just disappeared entirely? Became utterly inconsequential? 

What if God’s Will for our life is so much bigger and so much smaller than this thing we have constructed? 

In John 13, Christ is living his last day as a free man before he will be subjected to his trial, torture, and ultimately, his death. 

In these last hours, he humbles himself before his disciples and washes their feet, saying, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” and later, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
What if this is it? 
What if, after the paramount act of accepting Christ's gift of salvation, God's Will for our lives is just to become like Jesus? 

What if every trial we go through, every relationship we keep or lose, every job we pursue, every degree we earn-what if the only purpose for these things is to provide the perfect outlet for each of us to live like Jesus and show the love of God to those around us? What if when we don't get the job we want, it's because Christ's love through us could be more perfectly displayed in another place? What if breaking up with someone you care about is the only way for you to understand the sacrifice and burdens of Christ, to become more like him? 
Suddenly, it's all so much simpler.
I don't think this is a radical idea by any means, and honestly, maybe this is just common knowledge and I'm just now coming to this realization, or maybe this isn't making any sense at all, but it just seems to make so much more sense to me, spelled out like this.

It takes the pressure off of the where and the who and the when, because now it just relies on The Why.