Heart Desire vs. Reality
On Memorial Day, we took a trip to Door County to check out the cherry blossoms, some unique stores, and just see the sites. We planned to use a good chunk of the day and were looking forward to just enjoying it. The beauty didn’t fail us. The flowering orchards, the quaint towns, the specialty stores, and seeing the bay and all the beauty. As we though it couldn’t get better, we hadn’t considered if it might get worse... which it did. We discovered that a few of us had allergic reactions to the cherry blossoms. All our best plans and desires didn’t look so amazing after congestion started setting in. Even though we left the area, the allergic reaction lasted for the rest of the day. Our plans seemed well thought out until a wrench got thrown into the mix. What our heart was desiring seemed to be much less valuable than the reality of the situation. I think that there are many with a romantic view of faith, figuring that everything will just fall into place, all struggles will cease, and we will live happily ever after. We don’t consider what God is calling us to do and that there may be suffering involved. God promises an amazing eternity if we walk by faith, but He doesn’t guarantee what day to day will look like. If we live in perfect harmony with the community, especially those that aren’t walking by faith, we have to ask ourselves if we are truly living out our faith. Has our faith become so private that those around us don’t understand how important and life changing it is or do we not realize how important it is and out of fear of rejection, choose to make our faith private? We have to ask ourselves where our hearts desires come from. After all, God says that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. Are our spiritual conversations saved for church and Bible studies, or do we boldly live out that faith for the world to see? Sometimes, even our best plans must be changed. Even though we must always test to see if our desires are in line with God’s will, we must also know that God tells us that if we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts... not the selfish ones, but the ones that come from delighting in God. Reality can be harsh, but life would be very depressing if we didn’t have the desires that only God gives. Father, fill us with Your Holy Spirit and change our hearts to align with Your word so that our hearts might truly rejoice. Amen