Gut Instinct and God-Things

I don't believe in coincidence. If you know me, you know that I make that comment often. I believe in purposeful living, in living authentically. I believe that when I listen to my body, and "go with my gut," things make more sense.

Take for example the other morning, when I was debating what to have for breakfast. I wasn't that hungry, but I felt a strong urge to stop and eat a big breakfast. What I really wanted to do was practice yoga, dilly-dally, and eat a long leisurely breakfast. But I decided to listen to my gut. It just felt like I needed extra nourishment for some reason. Ten or so minutes into breakfast, I got called out for work and only had a chance to to eat a protein bar between breakfast and dinner. Good thing I had that breakfast to tide me over.

Further back in time to Sunday, I felt obligated to go to an event for Christian community, but didn't want to go. As I was wrestling with my guilt over saying, "No," a friend came up and invited me to a different kind of gathering that was more conducive to my lot in life. That confirmed my, "No," for the other event.

At work, I had an instinct that something wasn't right and that I'd need to reach out to some specific resources. So I programmed those contacts into my phone before leaving. It turned out I needed them.

Is my gut instinct always right? No. I'm human, and a sinner (Rom 3:23). But I do believe that the Holy Spirit indwells me, and that the Spirit's still small voice is often what speaks to me through my visceral responses to things. Oswald Chambers writes in My Utmost for His Highest, 

"When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God’s will. And all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit. You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop immediately."

I think Chambers' words totally apply here. Listening to gut instinct, or common sense, is a good rule of life for the most part. And when things don't turn out right, it's time to regroup, repent, and consider if the "common sense" I followed was my own voice, or the Holy Spirit.

Gut instinct? Nah. Holy Spirit? Yes. And with the Holy Spirit, there are no coincidence, just "God-things."

I'm linking up with Amanda at Running with Spoons for this Thinking Out Loud post.