Have you ever considered the possibility that if you actually got what you wish you had, it could turn out to be a big obstacle to what you really want? Or what you think you have lost could be the threshold of your greatest dream?
No… I really do want you take a moment to think about it. I’ll wait…
This is not merely the rationalization of disappointments and dashed hopes, many of us can attach actual experiences to both of those possibilities. As one example of the first question, a man who won a mega lottery a few years back was followed up a few years later by an interviewer who asked him how he was doing. He said winning the lottery “stole all my dreams.” As an example of the second, Dick Vitale, who for many years has largely been considered the face of college basketball, was once the coach of the Detroit Pistons. The team did not win enough games to suit the ownership and Dick was ultimately fired. By Dick’s own words, that was the best thing that ever happened to him professionally.
Of course, this doesn’t mean God never wants to give us what we want, but we rarely need help processing getting what we want; we often need help processing not getting it.
James the apostle writes, “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11). All this points us to faith and hope. Not faith and hope directed to our specific outcome, necessarily but to the One who knows the outcome that best builds our faith and fits our hopes.
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