What do you want?
Storytelling & screenwriting begin with the question “Who is he and what does he want?” The main character has to want something if it’s going to be an interesting story. For it to be an epic story, he has to want something big & important – and – be willing to take extraordinary risk or pay an incredible price to get it.
Deciding what we want seems easy when we’re young. “I want a beautiful wife” or “I want my college degree” or “I want a good job”or “We want a child”. Very concrete, specific “wants”.
As these things come to us, we check them off our list. And we’re grateful.
But as we mature, the things we want become less didactic; more ethereal, if you know what I mean. We want to be “happy”. We want fulfillment. Meaning. Significance. We want to belong. We want to love and be loved.
And as these wants get harder to define, they get harder to measure. How do you check “fulfilled” off your list? Without God in your life, they get harder to obtain too. A lot harder.
You see, God is about people. He told us to love Him first and foremost, but then after that, love others just as much as we love ourselves. I’ll argue that loving God, in real terms, is best done by loving others. Jesus said “if you’ve done it to one of the least of these (people), you’ve done it to me.” When we love people, truly love and serve them, we’re honoring God.
How we love and serve people depends on our unique gifts, our “wiring” and to some degree, our resources. But there’s little question in my mind AND from my experience, that when I want what God wants…when I love and serve people…that I’m happy, fulfilled, content and on purpose.
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” says Psalm 37:4.
Hang out with Him. He’ll give you desires that are His “wants”. I’ll betcha’ a dollar they’ll be about loving and serving people.
Question: What do you “want” in 2012? Will you ask God what HE wants for you and from you this year? Will you ask Him who He wants you to help? Love? Forgive? Serve? Mentor?
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