We’ve made it so complicated, so unnecessarily mysterious. Ask any pastor what is the question that is most frequently asked by his parishioners, and he will likely answer, “What is God’s will for my life?”

Then comes the conventional response accompanied by a torrent of Bible verses and associated caveats. Most people listen politely and proceed to do what they wanted all along.

There is another approach that has a much better chance of succeeding, starting with a basic question: Why bother doing God’s will in the first place?

Hint: It is NOT primarily related to avoiding negative consequences. It IS related to positioning your life for unimaginable blessings for yourself and others you encounter.

First, let me ask: Which would you rather be, a spiritual lightweight or a spiritual heavyweight? A “just-getting-by-Christian” or one who is making a difference?

Would you like to know the conscious presence of God, and experience His working through you to bless others? Would you like your life to be an adventure that is exciting and fruitful?

Sound far-fetched? It’s not, but you must align your life to be as close to God as possible, and that means intentionally living, and making decisions accordingly.

Let me explain how this works with an illustration from (of all places) particle physics …

For 50 years or so, scientists have believed that our material universe owes its present form to a mysterious subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson — so important that it has been nicknamed “the God-particle.”

As one prominent scientific group explains, “You and everything around you are made of particles. But when the universe began, no particles had mass; they all sped around at the speed of light. Stars, planets and life could only emerge because particles gained their mass from a fundamental field associated with the Higgs boson. The existence of this mass-giving field was confirmed in 2012, when the Higgs boson particle was discovered at CERN.”

Now for the interesting part.

“Particles get their mass by interacting with the Higgs field; they do not have a mass of their own. The stronger a particle interacts with the Higgs field, the heavier the particle ends up being. Photons, for example, do not interact with this field and therefore have no mass. Yet other elementary particles, including electrons, quarks and bosons, do interact and hence have a variety of masses.”

In case you are wondering what all this physics stuff has to do with Jesus Christ, the scriptures make an astounding claim in Colossians 1:15-17:

“He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Could He be “holding all things together” with the Higgs boson? Just asking.

Now what if you imagined yourself as a particle and the Higgs boson as Jesus. As the Higgs boson imparts mass to a particle, you receive “spiritual mass” from your closeness and personal interactions with Jesus.

In fact, it could be said that spiritually, you only matter in relation to your proximity to God. Which brings me to the point of this article, “Learning to make decisions that move you closer to Christ.”

It’s simple. When faced with an important decision like who I should marry, what career I should pursue, what college to attend, what house to buy, what relationships to encourage, TV or movies to watch, etc., I resolve to ask myself the following question: “What are the likely consequences of a potential action/direction I am considering on my relationship with Christ? Will it move me closer to, or further away from Him?”

For example, should I (a Christian) even consider marrying an unbeliever? Spoiler alert from 2 Corinthians 6:14: “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness?”

How About You?

Since the entire arc of my life hinges upon my personal relationship and closeness with Jesus, shouldn’t that be my top priority every day? Can you think of anything more important to be focused upon?

Jesus said essentially the same thing when He stated in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

In other words, “apart from Me you will have zero spiritual mass” than that.