Maybe you CAN be and have all that you want…

…if you let God have influence over what it is that you want.

I don’t think I’m alone in my insatiable desire for more.

I think all of us have some discontentment, idealism, or longing — whatever you want to call it. We just have it for different things. Some of us can’t get enough money to buy stuff; others can’t get enough money for its sense of security. Some of us can’t get enough control/order over our lives; others can never have enough of the free whimsy that adventure offers. Some of us can’t get enough of the comfort of food and drink; others can never be disciplined enough, exercise enough, or get thin enough.

A lot of us want all of the above!

And of course, at some level, all of us want less of the negative things: our anxieties, our anger, the brokenness in our relationships.

I feel frustrated often by all of the things I want that I can’t seem to get. I often say to myself / God things like:

Why can’t I just change myself for good?

Why do other people seem to have blessed and easy lives while I struggle?

Why won’t my relationships heal themselves once and for all?

Why is this always so difficult?

Then, I had an idea:

Maybe the only way to get what I want is to change what I want.

Maybe the best way out of some of these frustrations is to submit my wants to God, asking not for the stuff to satiate me, but for a change in my expectations, deep contentment with what I already have, and Love to cover over it all.

Maybe some of the things I want seem benign and Good to me, but maybe they are actually self-serving and therefore not desires that God can get behind like I’d expected.

Maybe my discontentment is actually mostly greed.

Maybe my idealism is actually a lot of pride.

Maybe my longing is actually quite a bit of envy.

Maybe my discontentment, idealism, and longing does not need to be satiated, but rather utterly transformed.

Maybe the only way to get what we want is to change what we want. And for that, we’ll definitely need God.

God, change what we want so that we can be and have all that we want to be and have, according to Your Best Good for us in every way. We trust you. Amen.