Day 23 of Lent 2020

Is there anything that you wanted but didn’t get? As parents, we have to go through that dilemma with our children every Christmas. Every year I have the boys make me a list of what they want for Christmas then Micky and I have to determine which of those things on the list would be beneficial for our sons.

I remember it very clearly to this day. Micky has always wanted to be a doctor from the time he was a little boy. He strived for excellence in every High School class he took and every college course he signed up for. He graduated from the University of South Dakota (USD) with a major in Biology looking towards Pre-Med school. His MCAT scores and his grades were phenomenal.

We lived in different dorm rooms connected by a common area at USD. He called me one afternoon that I needed to meet him downstairs. As I was walking in the short hallway from my dorm complex I met him. Tears welling up in his eyes as he handed me a letter. It was a rejection letter to the School of Medicine at USD. Because of Affirmative Action, he would have to re-apply next year.

Micky was crushed. Many years of striving to be the best he could be in school were ripped from him with a few words in a letter. He wasn’t sure of what to do and where to go next. Micky wanted to give up until a mentor suggested…Nursing School.

God spared Micky from becoming a doctor and put him where his passion was, with his patients. How many times have you been to the doctor and you spend more time with the nurse instead of the doctor? That is where Micky wanted to be, he just couldn’t see it.

It is hard to wait for things we want when we have prayed and prayed to God to give us an answer or to make things happen for us now. We feel like giving up. It’s no use. I am going to do something else.

The author of the book I am reading puts it into better words than I can. His words were a light bulb for me.

I don’t have all the answers but here are some reasons not to give up on God.

• He is using this time to grow your faith and confidence in him.
• He is using this time to bring you back to him and is waiting for you to call out to him.
• He is teaching you patience.
• He is waiting for you to repent of a persistent sin of which you are currently living unrepentant.
• He wants you to pray.
• He has something better in store that is beyond what you are expecting.
• He is opening a different door of opportunity that you don’t yet see because you are not looking for it. You are anticipating God to respond in the way that you expect so you are unable to perceive him responding in a different way.
• There is a step of faith you are not willing to take.

Ressler, Phil. 40 Things to Give Up for Lent and Beyond: A 40 Day Devotion Series for the Season of Lent (p. 82). Kindle Edition.

Don’t give up. God is there fighting for you. He is whispering into the hearts of others to make everything fall into place. He is the entire crew working behind the scenes of your play…your story. It will happen. Keep praying and have faith.

Is there anything that you wanted and never received? Now that you look back on your life you are glad you didn’t get it? Please comment below and get the conversation going.