Your taxpayer dollars at work... or not.

hola chiquitas. So i'm home sick for the 3rd day in a row, and seeing as i do "bedrest" oh-so-well, i'm bored silly. thus the web-surfing and remembering this fabulous blog - kudos again to whoever started it (Megan W?) - and it occurs to me that while your taxpayer dollars are funding my salary, today you're paying me to stay in bed, cover up my head, and get better. so thank you. briefly, the source of being stuck in bed is apparently bronchitis and a double ear infection on top of a sinus infection. hearing that diagnosis on tuesday made me feel a little less like a wimp and slight more justified in saying that i feel like dirt... :)

Given that I got sick while traveling for work (your taxpayer dollars truly at work), and that travel sent me to Paris, France, I shouldn't really complain too much. But before you get jealous, I was gone for 3 days, worked more than 18 hours of each of those days, slept poorly thanks to jet lag and crazy work, and did not get to play tourist. [I did briefly walk around the last morning, but if you want to call getting up at the crack of dawn to take pictures before my flight being a tourist, we can argue another time. :) ]

So... I would like to pose a theological question... largely because it's one that keeps tying me up in knots in my head and because it's probably one that we asked a million times over during our 360 years... oddly, I'm still looking for the answer... or for more clarity. How do you know God's will for your life? How do you differentiate between God's provisions (of a job, of a place to live, etc.) and His will? I've been asking this question a lot lately - largely as it relates to a million questions/variables in my own life, but I've found such a range of answers and opinions, that it's intriguing. Especially if you get into the distinctions between God's permissive will and His perfect will... but I'll spare you that question. :)

For instance, does the provision of a particular job mean that it's God's will? What if there are multiple opportunities (or even just two), then how do you know which is His will? I realize that one answer here is "Katye, you think too much", but really, I don't! I just really want to live each day to the fullest - to get out of bed each morning (when this bedrest is over) with a sense that I'm participating fully in the Lord's work where's He's called me, and to go to bed each night able to say I faithfully worked where I was called. I imagine this is the heart of all of us, but I keep getting hung up on the first part - where am I called to be?

Thoughts are appreciated... as long as you don't think I'm crazy.