This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “The Secret Of The Lord”, claims that God reveals intimate secrets to believers and provides automatic spiritual guidance for all decisions, instructing mature Christians to obey mysterious “checks” without rational examination.
Here’s a different approach:
Julia had always made decisions by “gut feeling.” When something felt wrong, she avoided it. When something felt right, she pursued it. Her friends called it intuition; her pastor called it the Holy Spirit guiding her choices.
This approach worked fine until she became a financial advisor. Suddenly, her gut feelings were managing other people’s retirement savings, college funds, and emergency reserves. A nagging doubt began to grow: what if her “spiritual guidance” was just unconscious bias, wishful thinking, or incomplete information?
The turning point came when her instincts told her to recommend a tech startup investment to the elderly Martinez couple. It “felt right”—innovative company, charismatic CEO, promising projections. But her colleague David pushed back.
“Have you researched their fundamentals? Looked at their debt-to-equity ratio? Checked the CEO’s track record with previous companies?”
Julia bristled. “Sometimes you have to trust more than spreadsheets, David.”
But his questions bothered her. She spent the weekend digging deeper. The startup’s books showed concerning patterns. The CEO had led two previous companies into bankruptcy. Industry experts were predicting a market correction that would hit tech stocks hard.
Julia’s “spiritual check” had been wrong. Dangerously wrong.
She began developing a new decision-making process. Instead of relying on feelings, she created checklists for evaluating investments. She sought multiple expert opinions. She required herself to articulate logical reasons for every recommendation. When doubt arose, instead of automatically avoiding something, she investigated further.
Over time, Julia discovered that her most reliable guidance came not from mysterious inner promptings but from thorough research combined with honest consultation with knowledgeable colleagues. Her “secret joys” weren’t divine revelations but the satisfaction of making well-informed decisions that genuinely served her clients’ best interests.
The Martinez couple thanked her for the careful analysis that led them to choose conservative bonds over risky tech stocks. Their gratitude felt more meaningful than any mystical confirmation ever had.
Reflection Question: When have you found that careful research and expert consultation led to better decisions than following your initial instincts?
This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.
God or Delusion? 