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 Baffling Call of God,” promises that believers with “God dwelling within them by the power of his Holy Spirit” will hear God’s baffling call “like the call of the sea,” claiming that “nothing happens by chance, only by his decree” and that Christians should trust “the wits and wisdom of God” rather than their own understanding, believing that “behind everything lies the great compelling of God.”
Here’s what trusting that God has a baffling call and divine purpose behind everything actually delivered:
“The call of God is like the call of the sea,” Pastor Johnson declared with spiritual mystery. “Only those with God dwelling within them hear it. Nothing happens by chance, only by His decree. Trust God’s wits and wisdom, not your own. Behind everything lies His great compelling. Stop trying to understand His purpose and enter into relationship with Him for His own ends.”
Rachel had been feeling increasingly restless in her stable nursing career, experiencing what she interpreted as a spiritual calling to leave her job and move to rural Montana to start a Christian retreat center with no business plan, funding, or relevant experience. The promise that God’s baffling call comes to those with the Holy Spirit within seemed to confirm her mysterious sense of divine leading despite all practical indicators suggesting the idea was unrealistic.
Rachel desperately wanted to believe that her unexplained restlessness was God’s baffling call and that trusting divine wisdom over human understanding would lead to spiritual purpose. Instead of exploring practical reasons for her job dissatisfaction, researching retreat center operations, developing business skills, or even visiting Montana to understand the reality of rural life, she trusted that God’s decree was behind her feelings and that His compelling purpose would become clear through blind obedience to the mysterious call she felt.
For months, Rachel made impulsive decisions toward her Montana retreat vision—quitting her job, selling her home, and moving across the country without adequate preparation—believing that trusting God’s wisdom over her own would reveal His baffling purpose and that nothing was happening by chance. When concerned friends suggested practical planning, market research, or at least visiting the area first, she declined, convinced that relying on human understanding would interfere with God’s compelling call and mysterious decree.
But the promised divine call and purpose behind everything was financial ruin disguised as spiritual obedience.
Rachel’s attempts to follow God’s baffling call created devastating practical consequences on top of her original restlessness. The divine purpose that trusting God’s wisdom was supposed to reveal remained absent while her savings depleted rapidly, her retreat center vision proved completely unviable, and she found herself stranded in rural Montana without income, community, or viable plan. The great compelling of God that was supposed to be behind everything never materialized when she needed practical guidance and sustainable direction most.
Meanwhile, Rachel’s former colleague Susan approached her own career restlessness with zero expectation that mysterious spiritual feelings represented divine calling. When Susan experienced similar job dissatisfaction and desire for change, she sought career counseling, explored her interests through informational interviews, and researched practical steps for career transition while maintaining financial stability and professional relationships.
Susan didn’t interpret restlessness as God’s baffling call but treated career dissatisfaction as requiring practical exploration, skill development, and strategic planning. Her direction came through professional assessment, gradual transition planning, and evidence-based career change strategies rather than trusting that mysterious feelings represented divine decree requiring immediate obedience without practical preparation.
When Rachel finally sought similar practical help, she discovered that healthy career transition required understanding her actual interests and market realities rather than trusting that mysterious restlessness represented God’s baffling call with divine purpose behind all circumstances.
Where was the divine call that those with the Holy Spirit were supposed to hear like the call of the sea? Where was God’s decree and compelling purpose that was supposed to be behind everything, making human wisdom unnecessary?
The direction that actually helped came through accepting that restlessness requires practical exploration and focusing on evidence-based career transition strategies, not through believing that mysterious feelings represented divine calling with predetermined purpose behind all circumstances. The silence where God’s baffling call was supposed to be compelling revealed the truth: there was no divine voice calling through spiritual feelings or predetermined purpose behind life circumstances requiring blind trust over practical planning.
Only career dissatisfaction and life transitions that required professional understanding and strategic planning to navigate successfully toward meaningful work and financial stability.
Reflection Question: When has practical career planning and professional counseling been more effective than trusting that restlessness represents God’s baffling call with divine purpose behind everything?
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? 