God does not want you to be a puppet on a string. You have free will. Yet the will of God is intertwined ever so delicately with your own. That's why it's so dang perplexing to know what God wants from you. Help is here.

The next time you're in a quandry over God's will and your own, think about it this way. If it's bad, it's not God's will. If it's wonderful it is. If you feel blessed in the doing of it and you are excited at the very core of your being, it's God's will. If you're out of sorts, in dread, or deeply disturbed, it's not. If it tears the family apart, it's not God's will. If it brings peace and harmony it is. May you be blessed with Divinely inspired discernment when making important life choices.

There's an old story of a master who was a great star in the early 1800's. When this man was on stage, they said there were really two stars on the stage - this great man, Pagannini, and his Stradivarius violin. When he played, it was so magnificent that everyone remembered it for the rest of their lives.

When he died in 1840, he requested that his Stradivarius be put on display, never to be played by another human being. They did as he requested. It was put on display in its diamond-studded case, never to be touched by a human being. Today the same violin remains on display, except you can't see the violin any more. You see a diamond-studded case and a pile of dust in the middle of the case.

Wood, even handled just briefly, will remain strong. But if it's allowed to just sit and not do what it was intended to do, it will go to dust. There are Stradivarius violins from 1810 and 1820 that can be played today and sound just as wonderful as they did when they were first made. Do you know why? They've been used as they were intended to be used.

We must do the same. We have to use ourselves as we are intended to be used. Sometimes the easy life that we all dream of could be the worst thing for the development of our soul. We must be active; otherwise we atrophy.

1 Corinthians 10:31