I was standing in line the other day and watching this kid throw a fit about not getting a candy bar. It brought back memories of my own kids at that age. Now it’s really fun because I get to watch my oldest daughter go through the same thing with my grandkids. I stand back and laugh at her and my son in law, but back to why I’m actually writing this. When I was watching this kid, I thought about as adults, don’t we do the same? We may not cry and stomp our feed, at least not in public anyway. No, what we do is justify why we need it or argue a point to get what we want. At what cost? Who are we hurting to get what we want when it’s not really what we need. Going back to my kids, do you know how many uneaten candy bars I have cleaned up in the back of the car? They thought they wanted it, but they really didn’t. They just argued (pithed a fit) until they received. We do this as adults. Let me share with you my own experience. I wanted a job in Pharmaceuticals so bad because of the status and money. I did everything I could to put myself in this career path. I remember even telling God that if he allowed me to get in this industry I would be able to give more money to the church or even be able to help others. I was trying to negotiate with God. However, I did get that job but what it did it cost me. I was hardly at home because I was traveling or attending work dinners with doctors. Sometimes God step backs and say ok here you go just as we do with our own kids. Fast forward 2 years in the industry changed and I lost my Job. Oh, yea forgot to mention I bought a new house because that’s what we needed, or should I say what I wanted. We are no different than our kids or the kids we see in a grocery store. Its only on a bigger playground. However, at this level we deal with regrets on a larger level. How many times have we heard folks say, “I regret _______” fill in the blank. Regret always begins with “I want”. Ask yourself this question? What is that one thing you regret? Now, ask yourself what was that thing you wanting that caused that regret? I hear this when I talk with people who have gone through a divorce. Each person wanted something within the marriage but they were not on the same page of their “wants”. There is nothing wrong with wanting something the problem is when our want doesn’t line up with what God wants for us. Our Father knows what is best for us, but we want things now. This is one of the reasons AMAZON is a billon dollar company. We don’t like waiting. Let’s look at: James 4:1-3: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. As it says in verse 1, “wants” causes fight and wars. We have all experienced conflicts over our wants. God is telling us here that we should be asking Him, because he know best. The only thing is that we can’t see that when we are allowing our wants to blur what God wants for us. So always remember this “You’ll never get what you really want until you discover what you really value.”
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A few weeks ago, I was traveling to Alabama and made a pitstop at a gas station. I was standing inline and this kid about 10 years old looked at his Mom and pointed and asked what’s is that? I looked to see what he was pointing at and it was a paper map. His mom looked at him laughed and told him what it was. Still puzzled, he then looked at her said don’t people know it’s on the phone and in the car? At this point his mom and I laughed out loud. She looked at me and said what these kids don’t know these days. As I got back in the car, I started to think about that kid and even my own kids. They would not know how to use a map. This brought me to a thought, and that is sometimes we turn down the wrong road and we live in a time where we depend on either google or our navigation in the car to make sure we stay on the correct road and to give us the right directions to get to our destination. When I was in college, my friends and I thought it would be a good Idea to head north to Virginia for some reason. We pulled out our paper map and laid it out on the table. I took a pen and drew our route on the paper map. Since we had the destination laid out, we were good to go. We threw some clothes in a bag, toss it in the back of the car and off we went. Things were going well until we pulled into South Carolina. The map showed us the roads but what the map didn’t show us was there was construction and the road we had planned on going down was closed. There were no detour signs to help us out. We pulled over at a gas station, pulled out our map and tried to find a new route and so we did, well which we thought we did. As we drove down this road and made turns we were so lost that not even the roads we were on were on the map. Eventually, we found a farmer who sitting on the side of the road with his tractor. I said sir we are lost and have no idea where we are at, can you help us? As my buddy was saying “just as long as he doesn’t kill us first” in the background under his breath. The farmer laughed and said boys yall are way off the path you need to be. He walked over to his truck and said follow me and I will get you back to the main road. We followed him and finally we were back on the right road. We finally made it to where we were headed. I thought how much easier it would have been if we had navigation or google maps in the car at that time. It would have told us what road to turn on how to get us around the construction and I’m sure we wouldn’t drove 50 miles out of the way and ended up on some dirt road. Thank goodness for navigation and google maps today, however I still see people today that don’t listen to it and try to go their own direction and end up on the wrong road. Isn’t this like life? We have a navigator that we should be following and listening to, but we don’t. We are hearing - turn here, don’t go that way, make a U turn. But we still don’t listen. We need to remember that God knows the direction to go, but we have to listen. He has the map of our life but we think we do and we think we know the best direction. Look at Palam 25:4-5 “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths, 5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” When we trust and ask he will show us. Even though it might the road we would have choose but remember he knows best. Today, if your struggling about what direction you need to be going, remember all we have to do is ask but remember we have to trust. Just as I had to trust that farmer to get us to the main road, we have to trust God will do the same thing. |
AuthorJust a man who follows Christ and writes for fun.. Archives
September 2024
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