In the seventies there was a band who wrote a famous song entitled “25 or 6 to 4”. As a youngster I discovered this song as I was going through my parents vinyl collection. I fell in love with the song almost instantly it had a catchy guitar riff and a thumping bass line. The lyrics however, never really made much sense to me. It was only years later that I discovered that the song was actually about the difficulty the writer was having in writing the song. He had a deadline by which he had to write it but had nothing to write about. The title itself is a reference to him staring at the clock inspirationless, watching the time disappear and pondering if it was 25 minutes or 26 minutes to four o’clock. His words may have uninspired, clutching at straws, but never the less it still made a hit.
I feel some sympathy for Robert Lamm as I set at my desk to write this, knowing this is the only time this week I will get to write it, yet not knowing what it that I want to say. Yet even so, I have already managed to write 200 words without deciding. I think that it is not unusual to find ourselves in periods of life where we feel directionless, sometimes even that we need and long for direction yet have none. A friend once told me that in the army young soldiers who had been quickly deployed to war used be given this advice; in the heat of battle when everything descends into chaos, things have departed from the plan and you have no clue what to do, just remember your last order. Whatever that was, just do that. My friend suggested that this is sometimes a good way to follow God. When you feel directionless or unsure what He wants you to be doing in life, just go back to the last time you felt God clearly lead you to something, and keep aiming for that.
Another friend said that the feel quite happy when they feel no direction from God because they just assume that means they’re headed in the direction God wants! I think it’s always good to be looking for God’s directions in all things. But I think it’s also good not to worry when there’s no clear direction or even purpose. Sometimes God has specific things he wants us to do, but what matters most is not what we do, but the heart with which we do it. As Paul writes to the Corinthians; “whatever you do, do it in a way that glorifies God”!
Originally written for the August 2023 ABC Newsletter
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