I assert that God meets us in the present, and our chief task is to prepare for the future without surrendering our presence or attempting to control outcomes. I speak from years of pastoral work and from the heart of Stained Glass International about how God often cares more about shaping our character and trust than about revealing a single, sealed future. I explain that planning and wise preparation are proper, but seeking certainty or yielding to the shame of “should” undermines freedom and trust. I argue that discernment happens in the present moment, where God gives the next step rather than a full map. I invite you to submit questions to me, to read more at drraymitsch.substack.com, and to practice faithful, courageous choices while trusting God in whatever follows.

Links referenced in this episode:

• sgi-net.org
• bit.ly/mondayswithmitsch26
• dr.raymitsch.substack.com

Welcome to Mondays with Mitch where you bring the questions and I do my best to find an answer without taking an hour to get there.

We'll talk about life, faith, relationships, suffering and what it means to be human.

I don't promise to have all the answers, but after 40 plus years of listening to people and making plenty of mistakes on my own, I may have a little perspective, some measure of wisdom.

So bring your questions, your curiosity and your sense of humor.

I'm Mitch.

Let's get started.

Welcome everybody to a third edition or episode of Mondays with Mitch.

I am glad that you have taken time out to spend time with me and that means a lot.

I am honored that you would set aside a time just to listen and we could, as one of my listeners said, we can talk across the table to one another and that really in a sense is what it is.

So a couple things before we get going and I just want a housekeeping more.

More housekeeping things than anything.

And that is I am I.

This sounds first world critical stuff, but I'm running out of questions.

If you have questions, you bump into things while you're reading scripture or you're interacting with someone else, or there's something I have said or things that you read and you have questions about, please pose them to me.

I am happy to take a run at them.

I am not the source for all things, but certainly my hope is it will give you enough to think about in terms of that.

So given that, what I want to invite you to do is send in your questions at HTTPs:// forward slash.

This is just a mouthful.

Send it to Bit ly Mondays with Mitch 26.

How's that?

That probably makes it a little bit easier.

Hopefully it does.

And if you have questions, pose them.

If you have context, that would help me to zero in to try to answer your question.

The fact of the matter remains this is not, you know, some of you are old enough to remember this, some of you are not.

For a long time Shell oil company had what they called the Shell answer man.

And they would make up questions obviously for this dude to answer.

And that's a little bit how this feels.

And I certainly feel it when I'm in groups and people look at me and say, well and no, this is not what this is about.

Throwing things out for consideration and further discussion would be my hope.

And that's really what what this all means.

So there's that.

The other thing is, is if you want to see back episodes, I am loading them up on sgi-net.org you can go to Resources and Mondays with Mitch at the bottom of the page, I am loading up the video podcast for you.

My hope is coming up soon.

I've already kind of gotten the logistics sort of worked out is that you can choose whether on, at least on Apple podcasts, you can choose whether you listen to the audio version.

If you're taking a walk or driving, that would probably be a better idea anyway.

Or you can listen to the video one and that's available to you.

If, if you listen to audio and you want to, I, I've got a face made for audio podcasts.

I will just say that for now.

But if you want to see it as it's made, that's really what what the video is for.

And it feels more personal, I suppose, and intimate because I'm, I'm interacting looking at whoever it is that asked me that question.

Understand the fact that the questions I get are for the person, but we can benefit from it because there's things we draw out of the stuff that I bring up or the things that I say that would help better understand other parts of your life rather than just doing just that question.

And that, that's what that's key here is it's not just the question, it's a lot more in that question that I think is worth paying attention to.

So without further ado, let me, let me jump into this next question.

Actually, it's from one of my students and I have written a series.

You can find it at Dr. Raymich.substack.com and the series is on where do you live?

It's asking that question.

And we talked about the past, which the only question is if only.

And the future.

And that is I should have or I could have.

And then the present is how do we.

How do we meet each other in the present?

Now, there's a sub layer here that I want to make you aware of because there are a lot of us that spend more time in the past or the future than we do in the present.

And oftentimes, not often, a lot of the times, the past and the future is riddled with the language of shame.

If only I had therefore I am a bad friend, a terrible parent.

I should have known better.

Fill in the blank.

The future is a little different because I should have known better.

The thing that blaze into your minds is the minute the word should is used.

And I'm not talking about moral imperative shoulds like I should tell the truth.

That's a good should, if you want to say it that way.

But if I am supposed to always do it right, never make any mistakes and know exactly what somebody needs to hear from me, and if I don't, I am a bad friend.

That, that is shame.

And most of the shoulds we use are shame producing.

I jokingly have said that shame is the bastard child of or should is the bastard child of shame.

And our language.

I dare you.

I don't know when's the next time I'm going to be on.

Hopefully it's a couple of weeks.

But I dare you to pay attention to how many times you should.

That is not a moral imperative because oftentimes that is the language.

Can I be blunt?

That is the language of our enemy and it keeps us enslaved.

And those who know me, I am, I am not part of the Satanic panic.

At the same time, I have interacted with and been a part of dealing and helping people that are leaving the occult.

And that's the dark, unseen realm that we pay little attention to because we think we're so enlightened, because we live only in the material reality that we live in.

But there's another one and it's, it's something worth paying attention to.

So that's a slight rabbit trail, but something at least to consider, I think when we're looking at some of the things that, that we have to talk about.

And the question that I have is really part of this.

And so let me ask, let me pose the question so you know, who, what is asked and then let me begin to address it, dismantle it a little bit.

And here's the question.

If God meets us in that little space called the present.

Now remember, I have talked about the infinity loop.

And the left loop is the past, the right loop is the present, and where we meet, where they cross is the present.

I said the, the right loop is the future.

Sorry.

So if God meets us in that little space called the present, which he does, because that's where we are now, God is over all of it.

Over all of it.

No one will debate that point.

His omniscience, his omnipotence, over all of it.

But because we are limited to the present, he meets us in the present.

So the person's question is, how do we plan for the future effectively?

How do I know what future path I should take?

Or if God wants me to take one path over another?

How do we honor the fact that we are called to the present while preparing well for the future, even though it's not guaranteed?

Is the question.

What is the Future where I can honor and glorify God the most, or whatever path I choose to walk, it is up to me to honor and glorify God the most.

Is there an obvious choice when it comes to decision making with God?

Okay, lot a lot in this question.

So there are a variety of questions that are embedded in here.

One is, if God meets us in the present, how do we plan for the future?

Secondly, how do we know which path to take?

Now, I probably, given the question, it's actually how do we know which path is the right one to take?

And following on that, is there one right path God wants, or can we honor God faithfully or on more than one path?

The key tension here is living fully in the present without becoming irresponsible about the future.

That's the key.

Now, one of the biggest challenges, I think for a lot of Christians, and it goes to this question, is there one right path God wants?

Christians often say, I'm trying to find God's will.

I don't want to miss God's plan.

I wish God would just tell me what to do.

We long for the days, although it was thousands of years ago, where God actually wrote on the the wall and said something to one of the kings of Persia, which is what is recorded in Daniel.

The hidden assumption here, which is so important to take into account, is that there is only one correct future, and my job is to discover it.

As a matter of fact, it's obscured and I have to find a way to figure out what it is.

Now, again, the question has to be, who's obscuring it?

As AW Tozer once said, our vision of God tells everything about ourselves.

What is viewed here is that God is hiding it and saying, you need to figure this out.

And if you do, then everything will go well.

So the alternative question here is not only which future has God selected, but also who is God asking me to become as I move toward the future?

This is an undergrad, she's a senior, she's looking forward to the future.

And there's this huge assumption that there is a right way to do this, this, and if I find the right way, everything will turn out okay.

Therein lies the problem, because it limits God only to the choices that I make or I get penalized for the choices I make because of the character of God.

The thing to keep in mind here is that Scripture seems a whole lot more interested in our spiritual formation, our trust of God, than it is about prediction.

Because God came in human form, Jesus and he interacted with people Just like you and me.

It's not that they're any different than us.

And all of his instructions are immediate in the present.

Follow me, Love one another.

Forgive, do not fear.

Seek first the kingdom.

All present instructions, they're all present tense commands that can prepare us for whatever the future brings.

That's the issue.

The key idea here is that God may be more concerned with the person I'm becoming than with giving me advanced knowledge of every destination on my journey.

So it's about my transformation rather than arming me to simply reform enough to make everything come out okay.

Now, just a teaser for those of you who are listening to this podcast and actually seeing my energy, because I don't have a lot in any given day, my energy around this is that my trust.

If I know everything there is to know or make all the right choices, why do I need to trust God?

Why?

What forms me is choosing, trusting God's heart for no matter what the outcome is, and moving forward as best I know how.

That is the rub and that is the challenge.

Because that's where my formation happens.

It is not knowing the path ahead.

It is trusting the one who is leading me.

So God is not terribly interested in giving us all the information we need in order to do the right thing.

Because most of the time the right thing isn't necessarily the wise thing.

And that really is a part of what I think we have to pay attention to.

So first and foremost, the anxiety of us trying to find God's will, kind of a dot approach.

There's a dot on the wall and I've got to find the dot.

And if I find the dot, I've got it all nailed down.

I'm good.

And that Mrs.

I'm more concerned with a dot than the God that I am trying to follow.

Secondly, God's more interested in what we are becoming than he is about the prediction of what's to come and the nature of who we are moving into that.

The third thing is planning is not the issue.

It's not the problem.

Living in the present doesn't mean refusing the plan.

Nobody ever said any of that.

The important distinction here is preparation versus prediction.

Preparation says, I want to be wise about what may come.

Prediction says, I need to know exactly how this will turn out, and if I do, everything will turn out great.

Jesus says, clearly, don't worry about tomorrow.

Not that we should never think about tomorrow.

Interesting word, that word worry.

Because in the Old English, and you all know, I'm kind of a word neuter about this stuff.

And I think it sometimes is quite revealing.

In the Old English, worry literally meant to strangle.

So when I worry, excuse me, when I worry about tomorrow, I am strangling my vision of tomorrow.

I feel like I'm doing something, I'm accomplishing something, but it's wasted energy now again.

And an article that I'll be releasing soon is just about that.

It's just because I know something doesn't mean that it's going to make any difference at all about what I do or even what I believe.

We have conveniently, we've conveniently split knowledge with knowledge that is a part of an encounter or an intimacy with God.

And that, that is really very much part of that.

So can I prepare for the future?

Yes, of course.

I mean, use all of the facilities and faculties that God has given you to do that.

Go for it, do the best job, knock yourself out.

But if you get wound up looking for the information necessary to predict a future, to guarantee an outcome, guess where we are.

We're actually talking about control.

And as I've said many times, I will continue to say it on this podcast, I will say it on Courage to Be Known, is that control and trust cannot coexist.

If I am trying to control whatever the outcome is, then I have ceased to trust God in the midst of it all.

Now, some people may say, well, that's easy for you to say, blah, blah, blah.

Well, no, it's not really that easy for me to say.

I have the ultimate trump card called cancer.

I have a choice that I make every day when I get up about to what degree I am going to.

I'm going to trust God's heart with what my day brings.

And my days are pretty boring, actually, because I run out of energy very quickly.

My resources in that regard, or my backup is very, very thin.

And so the thing to keep in mind here on this particular one, that planning isn't the issue, planning isn't the problem is that the future deserves my preparation, but it does not deserve my presence.

The fourth thing is what happens when both choices are legitimate.

Many decisions are not between good and evil most of the time.

For most of us on very big issues, I can figure out what evil is.

That's pretty obvious now in the world that we're living in.

It's not quite that obvious at times, but other times, the Holy Spirit is very consistent in prompting us about evil.

If we're listening, it's not about God showing up.

It's about whether or not we will tune in to what he Is saying, in the moment.

Now, I'm not condemning anybody that says, I don't hear God's voice.

I don't.

I don't even know how to do that.

And the challenge is, how do we cultivate a commitment to seeing the movements that are going on around me as very much a part of what God is up to?

We go through life kind of like canoers down a river.

We go through life and just kind of paddle along and do the things and handle things.

We get very alert when the rapids start coming.

Unfortunately, the things that are happening before the rapids ever comes are the things that teach us to prepare for the rapids.

And so decisions are not between good and evil.

Most of the time, we can pick the evil out.

They are between two possible goods, two jobs, two places to live, staying or leaving, saying yes or saying no.

And the question always comes is, what if God is not always saying, choose path A?

He's saying, choose because you have the freedom to choose.

And however it turns out, good or bad or ugly, however it turns out, I'll still be with you in it.

Our assumptions interfere with our ability to see a good and loving father who will go with us no matter what our decisions are.

Even the bad ones, I might add.

So maybe sometimes not maybe.

I think all the time, God is saying, you know me.

You know my character.

I trust you to have the wisdom that I have been building in you in the quiet waters.

Now choose and walk with me with freedom.

Freedom is a part of spiritual maturity.

We get so bound up in looking for the right one that we forget about the one walking with us.

So there are two questions here.

We're thinking through.

What future will allow me to honor and glorify God the most?

Which one does it?

May be shades of gray.

Probably will be shades of gray in question two.

Whatever future I choose, even in that, how can I honor and glorify God there?

So to some degree, when you think about these questions, it's like, this is a win, win.

I hate that phrase.

But I have the freedom to make the best choice I have with the information I have.

And no matter what way it turns out, no matter what way it turns out, Araba is still with us and still walking with us.

Both of those things have value.

Sometimes one path is wiser than the other, which means I have to cultivate that wisdom, right?

But the reality is, God can be honored in many circumstances.

Calling may be less about finding the perfect location and more about faithful living wherever we are.

This one, as I often say in class this one flies a little too close to my own airport.

I have looked for the dot on the wall for a long, long time.

And God isn't about the precision of doing it right.

God is about the commitment to following him doggedly, tenaciously and consistently.

So I have a sixth one, the fear of making the wrong choices in here.

A deep fear underneath discernment.

And this is what the future has in it.

Remember, I said if only is the past, and I didn't say it well.

But what if is the future, right?

So what if I choose wrong?

And we may imagine life like railroad tracks.

One correct track and one wrong turn, and we are permanently outside of God's plan.

I. I actually know something about railroads.

I worked for a summer which was the equivalent of years on the railroad, and I saw how railroad tracks work.

I saw how.

How important ties are.

I saw a lot of things there.

Like how do you warm up a burrito?

And you warm it up on a manifold, in case you were wondering.

But see, the thing to keep in mind, even there is.

What I saw is there was a main place, and most of us, one of us that was on the work crew, had to jump out and pull the track so that we go in the right direction.

And we're functioning on the same idea.

But the reality is it gives our decisions way too much power and God way too little.

See what I said, my vision of God says everything about me.

Scripture is full of imperfect people making imperfect choices while God continues to work.

Now we get hung up on imperfect choices, right?

But where the freedom comes in is I can make the best choice.

I can in consulting with people that know, consulting with God through prayer and reading his Word and staying with those and letting them speak into me, not looking for them as a secret treasure map, but as something that says, I'm still with you.

Make the best choice.

You have the freedom to make the best choice you want.

And no matter what you choose, I'm still going to be with you.

And you think through scripture of the choices people made.

I'll tell you glowing example.

This is Abram.

Abram and Sarah wanted a child.

And they.

Sarah said, I don't care how I get a child.

So why don't you go in and have sex with somebody else and we'll claim it as our own.

Hey, that's a.

That's a good decision.

It highlighted God's power in the midst of all of that, even in the midst of a very bad decision.

Because oftentimes when we get into desperate straits, desperate Situations we don't slow down, we just.

We stomp on the gas.

So our choices matter.

The consequences are very real.

But just realize that God's purposes in your life, in mine is not so fragile that one imperfect decision will ruin everything.

We get so bent double over making the right decision that we forget about God's presence, no matter what we choose.

And we need to.

I'm not saying we don't need to do our due diligence.

We do and to get all the information we can.

And the advice.

You know what I want to say.

The advice of wise friends like doctors in my case.

And even in that choice, even in that choice, my doc wanted me to.

To work or to stay with this treatment for two years.

I made it for nine months.

That is not the ideal.

I can't imagine doing it for two years in terms of what I would be, where I would be, or who even I was by the time that two years was over.

And that's really why, at some level, I simply said it wasn't a matter of I can't.

I don't really want to go any farther with this.

I really don't.

And the docs said it's an imperfect choice, but a lot of guys make that choice because it is so hard.

And I went into the treatment thing, yeah, two years.

And P is like, hey, I can do two years.

And in eight months or nine months, I'm saying I'm waving the white flag.

And that is profoundly embarrassing.

Why?

Because I'm comparing it to my ideal strength, self, not the self that is diminished over.

Every month that I take that treatment, I got another one.

If these aren't enough.

Faith doesn't always produce certainty.

Faith isn't about certainty.

A story is told of Mother Teresa.

She lived in the slums of Calcutta and she would work with the people that were impoverished living there.

And one particular American was very wealthy, but felt like he had no purpose in life.

In spite of all of his wealth, he could have anything he wanted, and it just wasn't enough.

And he came to the conclusion, is this all there is?

And so he decided to hop on a plane.

Imagine that plane cost to Calcutta.

And he met with Mother Teresa.

And he met with her and introduced himself, and they began to walk.

And she said, what are you here for?

Why are you here?

What questions do you have?

And he said, I am looking for certainty.

And she stopped, looked him dead in the eye, and said, you don't need certainty.

You need trust.

Trust and certainty don't always go together.

Oftentimes they don't at all.

So we can pray, we can seek counsel, we can examine our motives, we can study Scripture, pay attention to wisdom and circumstances, but we're still not certain.

I literally met with a young man last week, and he said, I just need more information.

It's like, no, you don't need more information.

You need to learn about trusting God's heart for you.

Because all the information in the world isn't enough.

So faith isn't about certainty.

Faith is about making the wisest decision we can and trusting God with what happens next.

That it sounds very nice.

It would be something that goes on a coffee mug really well, or a T shirt.

But boy, that is harder than it sounds.

Because trusting God is not something that comes naturally to us because we live in a world of control and power.

Here's another one.

Discernment can only happen in the.

In the present.

We want God.

Think this through for a minute.

We want God to meet us five years from now.

He meets us today.

We want the whole map.

We want the waypoints.

We want the increases in salary.

We want all of that.

But all we receive is the next step.

We want certainty about the destination God gives us his presence.

I can't not live tomorrow, today.

A lot of people do.

I have made my living.

That's kind of crass, but I have made my living talking to people who are trying to live tomorrow, today.

But the only thing I can do that is available for me to do today is praying and seeking wisdom and having conversations with mentors and wise people and make whatever decision I can today and trust today.

And when tomorrow comes, because it always does, it becomes another present moment where God will meet me.

See, my present is tomorrow's past.

I know that's not terribly profound, but for what it's worth.

So are there times when the choice is obvious?

Yes, there are times where it's very obvious.

Some options clearly contradict the character of Christ, the character of the path, and the journey we're trying to live on.

So dishonesty or exploitation or cruelty or betrayal or obvious irresponsibility all make the decisions a whole lot simpler.

Sometimes responsibilities or circumstances make the path clear.

But many major life decisions remain completely ambiguous.

And we hate ambiguity.

We want certainty.

Why?

Because we want a guaranteed outcome.

So in those situations, a better question may be, which choice can I make faithfully, wisely, and freely, and then walk with God in whatever follows?

Which of those choices?

So let me try to package this all together.

The future is a place that I cannot yet live meeting God in the present, which he is gracious enough to meet us here.

I can plant seeds for tomorrow without moving my heart into tomorrow.

I can plan without pretending I can control the outcome.

I can prepare while remaining present.

But perhaps the prayer or the question I need to consider is God, give me the wisdom for the choices in front of me.

Give me the courage to choose when certainty isn't available.

Help me to discern what my motives actually are and help me to love the people in front of me.

Because whatever road I take, whatever road I walk, teach me how to live and trust you there.

Those are the things that we strive toward and we hang on to.

Our security may not be in knowing where the road leads, but it is in knowing who walks it with us.

And again, like I said, that is not great slogan on a coffee cup.

But that is harder than it sounds and the reality is the only place that I can work that out is today.

So thanks for listening.

For today, send in those questions to me at bit ly mondayswithmitch26.

You'll find a form there.

Fill it out with your question and any context you would like to provide for your question.

That's kind of what Camille did.

Also, be sure to check out.

I'm trying to get back into the groove with these things as my energy slowly this is like molasses on a cold winter's day slowly comes back.

But be sure to check out the Courage to be known podcast C2BK.

Hopefully I'll have a new guest coming up in the next week or so that you can listen to what their story is like in terms of being known and still understand.

And I repeat this not to bludgeon you with it or make an excuse or anything like that, but please understand that the side effects of my cancer treatment are not gone now that I'm no longer taking that treatment.

So the regularity of releasing these podcasts will be roughly monthly, maybe less.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Do the subscription option or the follow option for that and C2BK.

And when I have at least a couple questions to answer I will on Mondays with Mitch.

So ultimately it depends on y' all to sending in questions for me.

Finally, we need.

I need.

We need your engagement and involvement what we're building at Stained Glass International.

I need a couple things from you guys as listeners.

One, write a review on Apple Podcasts that simply moves us up and helps us to be seen by people that are looking looking for a podcast like this and that will help.

And secondly, if you feel like the podcasts or the substack that I'm writing with are worth supporting financially, please consider it's we are a 501c3 organization.

All your donations are tax deductible, and it goes a long way to not only funding students going to a silent retreat or participating in one of our groups, but also all of this.

I won't get into it.

I mean, the equipment, the setting, all of that costs something.

So one of the visions of SGI is to build outposts for the heart that are led by intentional leaders that provide the context for not only propositional truth, the things that are true in Scripture, but also embodied truth that can be found in our relationships with God and with each other and ultimately looking at ourselves.

And so if you're interested, be sure to check those out on whatever platform you listen to.

We're on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Podcasts.

A new feature coming online is going to be a video podcast on Apple Podcasts, and you can choose whether to watch the video or the audio.

The sub stack can be found at Dr.raymich.substack.com don't misspell my last name.

It has an S in it.

So M I T S C H so thanks for spending your present with me.

I am honored that you would do that, and I pray that God's love and grace enfold you today.

Until the next time.

Love you later.

Bye.