Sitting by the window looking out on a snowy street on my last night in downtown Chicago, taking in the pretty white lights sparkling in the trees and thinking.  Been thinking about our wanting and wishing modes.

Sometimes we think, ‘oh I want [this] to happen so badly!  I want the Angels to win the playoffs, right down to practically living and dying every pitch – ‘come on, Trout, you can do this!  Buddy, you are overdue for a triple!’ emotions peaked with each toss of the little white ball and where it lands.  Perhaps your obsession is your kid’s soccer game or his performance in the goal, or the Patriots … perhaps you live and breathe NBA basketball or you are desperate to see your adult child’s desire fulfilled. 

Can be a wish on a day that won’t matter too much in a week, or something that regularly has you up and down, perhaps discontent unless or until that thing happens.  So one thing—the passionate wish on a given day on not such a truly big thing; another-the thing about which you think, maybe even obsess, certain that you [or someone else] will be fulfilled only if it comes to pass.

For instance, when I arrived in Chicago, I desperately longed for it to snow—I want to walk in it, feel the snow on my face, experience the extreme cold even, because it is so different than my everyday life in sunny California.  And don’t you know?  On Sunday night about 6 pm, the first flurries began … I simply could not get enough of it—watching it, feeling it, walking in it—you get the idea.  My wish had been granted.

The next day during the brief lunch break of my class, I had to locate and run over to do some banking business.  When I exited the building, and turned north toward the bank, I was blasted in the face with snow and wind.  Holy cow!  Not having a suitable hat, by the time I arrived at the bank, my ears were like ice cubes, my face was stinging, and then I thought, ‘Girl, be careful what you wish for.’  Because even if it seems so great one moment, in another instant, it might look entirely different.  When I was leisurely strolling in soft falling snow, it was nothing short of delightful; when I had to be productive, find my way in unfamiliar territory, and I was freezing and wet, it ceased to be quite so enchanting.  Be careful what you wish for.  In this case, of course, ultimately, no big deal.

During the week, I got to know quite a few of my Northwestern mediation classmates due to the many hours we spent together, and the role-playing exercises in which we engaged.  One woman was curious to me, and I was hoping to have an opportunity to get to know her.  That happened when she asked if two of us wanted to have dinner with her one night.  The conversation, which she dominated, was interesting … at first.  And then it turned south—way south—when she began discussing her thoughts on love and romance etc., and let’s just say, they were not too morally upright.  The thought ran through my mind again, ‘be careful what you wish for.’  You wanted to get to know her, but sometimes what you discover about a person just isn’t so great.  Honestly, it made me sad, but that’s another story. 

And you?  Well, you desperately want something to come about—could be a job you are hoping to land, a relationship you hope will turn into a marriage, a college acceptance for your son, whatever. 

 May I propose that you and I submit our wishes,

       wants, desires to our loving God?

I think of these verses in James:  Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."¹

‘If the Lord wills…’ yes above all, may we desire for ourselves first the Lord’s will and then submit ourselves to his perfect planning and will.  God reminds us, “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.”² Don’t you just love that?  Entrusting ourselves to him and to his guidance makes sense because God sees around the corners we cannot, he holds the future in his hands when we are not yet there. 

Now while my example of wishing for snow, even the scenario with the dinner companion will not change the landscape or direction of my life; on the other hand, our strong desires about marriage or employment, etc.—life-changing decisions—well, all of these certainly do have great impact for our lives and should be surrendered to God, asking for his mind and his will to direct our courses of action.  Be careful what you wish for … ask God to show you what he wishes for you, to guide and direct you, and do it every day.

Christine 

1 - James 4.13-15;   2 – Isaiah 55.9