If God Gave You Your Wish

Photo by The Shifted Librarian

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifted/4242680000/

So Christmas is coming up.  Some of us have already unpacked the tree and decorations, and some of us are adamantly refusing to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.  Some way or another though, we're all thinking about what we want, or what we're going to get for our loved ones.

What if -- and I'm a big what iffer -- what if God asked you what you want for Christmas from Him?  What would you ask for?  The latest and greatest electronic toy?  Think bigger than that.  Think anything.  Would you ask Him to turn back the clock so you could make different choices and change the outcome of your life?  Would you ask for Him to change something about your body?  Your circumstances?  What is it that you long for more than anything?

Now that you have that something in mind, imagine what your life would be like if you had that.  It would be pretty great, huh?  All your problems would disappear.  You would finally be happy.  Or so it seems at first...

When I was young and stupid and in my early twenties, I thought I was in love.  I thought I knew who God had hand-picked for me.  And there came a day when God spoke to me through close friends, and told me to let this person go.  To offer him up, like Abraham did with Isaac.  I had to make a choice.  Who did I love more?

Well, thank God, I made the right choice.  I let this person go, and showed God that I loved Him more.  It wasn't pretty.  I screamed in pain as I drove away from his house, and actually thought about driving my car into the highway median.  Yeah, stupid Gwen.  But I didn't.  I survived that awful night, and God took my life in a completely different direction.  A better direction.

I'm creeped out as I imagine it -- what if God allowed me to have my wish back in 2003?  I would probably be as miserable and insecure as I was when I was dating this guy -- if not more so.  And if I had eventually married this person, I'd probably be divorced.  I wouldn't have my beautiful boy, Micah.  And David, my beloved David may never have known unconditional love.  Seeing now what God saw back then, I shudder.  I praise and thank Him for not listening to my foolishness and giving me what I thought I wanted!

I love the movie "The Family Man" staring Nicholas Cage.  It's about a man who leaves his girl for the career of his dreams, and afterward, is given the chance to go back and experience what it would have been like to marry his girl and have a beautiful family and life with her.  I cried my eyes out at the end, because I get it.  I get that if I had been stupid and chose to disobey God, I wouldn't have my wonderful life with David and Micah. 

Getting back to your Christmas wish...  Is it possible that your wish could drive you away from God?   Distract you from fulfilling your purpose?  If you won the lottery...if you got the liposuction and plastic surgery that could transform you into a candidate for Miss Universe...would you keep reaching for God?  Or would you find yourself drowning in bigger problems than you already have?  If God allowed you to go back in time and correct your mistakes...would you truly be a better person?  What of the ministry opportunities you have because of those bad decisions?  And that career you're so sure you want -- maybe having it would keep you from fulfilling the unique purpose for which God created you and placed you on the earth.

Consider my example: if God is saying no, it's for a VERY good reason that you can't see or understand right now.  God is never wrong, and He always has your best interest in mind. 

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord.  "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55: 8-9 (NLT)