My friend Heather writes a blog. I asked her if I could share it today with you all as a "guest blogger" for this series. Head over to her blog at hwerle.blogspot.com or read it below. Tomorrow will be the last day in the "Is it Worth it?" series. And if you are an Alleluia! church member, be sure to come to the Experiential Service tomorrow! We're back from break. 11:30am!
Lottery Tickets
"I remember an old catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging 'please, please, please, let me win the lottery.' Finally the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says 'my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket.'"
-Liz in Eat Pray Love
Even though I had heard the joke before, I laughed out loud with most of the theater last night when Julia Roberts recited this line in the movie made of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling story about her travel adventures to Italy, India and Indonesia. It's funny...very funny. Because it's true...very true.
We all want to win the lottery. It might be the best job in the world, the one where we dread Friday rather than Monday. It might be a marriage like that other couple that seems perfect. It might be conquering a huge goal, like running a marathon or learning a new hobby. Or it might be collecting stamps in a passport.
Most people have some sort of dream. To us, it's big and may feel unattainable. But it may just be possible, if we pray, wish and dream enough. But if it's not, it's OK. It's OK because it's a dream. We tell ourselves that it's just silly. That we made some sort of mistake years ago, and we can't go back. We get too busy and make too many excuses. It might seem to cost too much money.
These dreams stay there in our peripheral vision, taunting us like a carrot tied to a string on a stick hanging in front of a horse. We do our best to forget about them. We get distracted. We still might wonder "what if..." or "maybe one day..." But we leave it at that and go on with our daily lives, our task lists and the demands of our jobs, families, churches, sports teams, friends and volunteer obligations that sometimes feel more like homework assignments rather than opportunities to experience love, joy, grace, mercy and hope.
We were made to dream. There's this verse in the Bible. It's in the Book of Psalms, the book with all the poetry. It's a complicated collection of prayers. I love the Psalms. I even wrote a blog about them once. This one verse is tucked away in Psalm 37. Christians like to use this out of context to justify all kinds of things, sometimes even sinful ones. It's verse 4, and it says, "Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart." We like to claim that it means we will get what we want, when we want and how we want...if we love God. However, that's just not true. Sorry. It's not. Just because you love God, it doesn't mean that all of your dreams will come true. God is not a cosmic candle on a birthday cake. You can't make a wish and have it come true just because you believe in him. He does answer prayers, but that's a whole different conversation.
This verse explains God's love. It reminds us that God will infuse hisdesires for our lives on our hearts. If we seek him, trust him, love him and pour our everything into him, he will give us his desires for our lives. He'll give us desires that he wants to fulfill. He loves his children, and he longs to use them in ways that bring him and them great joy - an inexplicable joy that can be found from no other source in the entire universe.
These desires, the lottery tickets of which we daydream, are normal. We were made to dream. We were made to have goals. We were made to want more than this life will offer. We were made to live in a world where there were no unfulfilled desires, unfulfilled dreams, lost hopes. We were made for more.
So we pray. We hope. We dream. We want to win the lottery. But sometimes, we forget to buy the ticket. We wander around aimlessly as if someone will just knock on our door and hand it over.
It doesn't happen that way.
We were created to be a part of God's plan. He uses us. He wants us to be a part of his story, active and not passive characters. Characters who participate by loving others. Characters who participate by jumping in the deep end and using all gifts and resources he has given us. They're not ours, anyway. They were given to us on loan for a time, and we have the chance to be used by the one who created us. And that's pretty awesome.
So today, go buy a lottery ticket. Not literally, of course. Spend 10 minutes working toward a dream that you think is unattainable. Seek adventure. Take the first step. I did, kind of, with something small this week. It's a little scary because the outcomes is completely out of my hands. Nonetheless, if I hadn't pushed the first pebble to get the ball rolling, however, it never would have even been a possibility.
May God give you lottery-ticket desires worth more than all riches in the world and the courage to run full speed toward the opportunities to win the prize.
Most people have some sort of dream. To us, it's big and may feel unattainable. But it may just be possible, if we pray, wish and dream enough. But if it's not, it's OK. It's OK because it's a dream. We tell ourselves that it's just silly. That we made some sort of mistake years ago, and we can't go back. We get too busy and make too many excuses. It might seem to cost too much money.
These dreams stay there in our peripheral vision, taunting us like a carrot tied to a string on a stick hanging in front of a horse. We do our best to forget about them. We get distracted. We still might wonder "what if..." or "maybe one day..." But we leave it at that and go on with our daily lives, our task lists and the demands of our jobs, families, churches, sports teams, friends and volunteer obligations that sometimes feel more like homework assignments rather than opportunities to experience love, joy, grace, mercy and hope.
We were made to dream. There's this verse in the Bible. It's in the Book of Psalms, the book with all the poetry. It's a complicated collection of prayers. I love the Psalms. I even wrote a blog about them once. This one verse is tucked away in Psalm 37. Christians like to use this out of context to justify all kinds of things, sometimes even sinful ones. It's verse 4, and it says, "Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart." We like to claim that it means we will get what we want, when we want and how we want...if we love God. However, that's just not true. Sorry. It's not. Just because you love God, it doesn't mean that all of your dreams will come true. God is not a cosmic candle on a birthday cake. You can't make a wish and have it come true just because you believe in him. He does answer prayers, but that's a whole different conversation.
This verse explains God's love. It reminds us that God will infuse hisdesires for our lives on our hearts. If we seek him, trust him, love him and pour our everything into him, he will give us his desires for our lives. He'll give us desires that he wants to fulfill. He loves his children, and he longs to use them in ways that bring him and them great joy - an inexplicable joy that can be found from no other source in the entire universe.
These desires, the lottery tickets of which we daydream, are normal. We were made to dream. We were made to have goals. We were made to want more than this life will offer. We were made to live in a world where there were no unfulfilled desires, unfulfilled dreams, lost hopes. We were made for more.
So we pray. We hope. We dream. We want to win the lottery. But sometimes, we forget to buy the ticket. We wander around aimlessly as if someone will just knock on our door and hand it over.
It doesn't happen that way.
We were created to be a part of God's plan. He uses us. He wants us to be a part of his story, active and not passive characters. Characters who participate by loving others. Characters who participate by jumping in the deep end and using all gifts and resources he has given us. They're not ours, anyway. They were given to us on loan for a time, and we have the chance to be used by the one who created us. And that's pretty awesome.
So today, go buy a lottery ticket. Not literally, of course. Spend 10 minutes working toward a dream that you think is unattainable. Seek adventure. Take the first step. I did, kind of, with something small this week. It's a little scary because the outcomes is completely out of my hands. Nonetheless, if I hadn't pushed the first pebble to get the ball rolling, however, it never would have even been a possibility.
May God give you lottery-ticket desires worth more than all riches in the world and the courage to run full speed toward the opportunities to win the prize.
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