Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.  Luxury German cars and holidays in Great Britain. Daily massages and living like kings. These are a few of my favorite things.

High maintenance much? Agreed, my appetites tend to run towards the indulgent and costly. I know, I know…the shiny of these things offers only fleeting enjoyment. But I can get into a thick dose of temporary comfort on occasion.

Admittedly, I like nice things. I also like less frivolous things like peace. Fulfillment, laughter, adventure, and friendship.  Real conversations with my girls, silliness with my husband, and opportunities to share Jesus.

So what does a greedy “wanter” like me do with Bible verses like Psalm 37:4 [single eyebrow raised in intrigue]?

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

He straight-up promises to give us what we want.  But really…how does that work?  Because I keep an ever-growing Note on my phone. Are we talking an Amazon Wish List here? This is genuinely a question I’ve grappled with as a believer. We love Jesus; we go to church almost every Sunday. We spend time reading our Bibles and praying each day. We’re doing everything we know to do to grow in our relationship with God; so how do we tap into receiving the desires of our hearts? A husband or a wife. A baby. A promotion. An opportunity in ministry. A larger house. That trip to Hawaii…

What does it mean when we’re checking all the boxes for being a good Christian and we aren’t receiving the desires of our hearts?  What do we do with God’s promise then?  Do we – even if in the most remote corner of the cellar of our hearts – decide we can’t believe him?

I was baffled.  Because people don’t just get what they ask for. Why would God promise that when it’s clearly not true?

And then I began to understand a little more about what it means to delight in the Lord.  It’s really not at all about doing the right things. We can’t “do” our way to delight. Obligation strangles delight; they are not friends. Delight is characterized by natural enjoyment. It’s every bit about having a heart for him. About sincerely digging time with him and wanting more of it. And when we do, he will give us what we want OR change what we want so he can give it to us. When my heart is engaged with his, he has access to change my heart to be more like his. So if I am praying for another international speaking opportunity (I spoke at a women’s conference in Germany in 2013) and that doesn’t line up with what he has in mind, through our time together he will reshape my desires to run consistent with his plans. At which point he can completely grant the desires of my heart.

And then. Through the darkest season of my life, he gave me an even truer insight into this verse.  When I truly – like “I cannot get enough of you” – delight in God, HE BECOMES THE DESIRE OF MY HEART.  I just want more of him. That’s it. I want to see him more and hear him more and know him more and love him more.  And I can ask for more and more and more of him and he can give it.  All day, every day. I can ask and I will receive.

So.  As the queen of wanting more (i.e., chocolate chip cookies, sleep, coffee, shoes…), I find that I can have as much of him as I want. I can be a greedy “wanter” of Jesus, and he’s more than okay with that.

Okay, God, let’s say…hypothetically….I want a black Mercedes SUV (exactly like the one pictured above – cough, cough)… 

Have you been wondering (pensive, perhaps) when in the world I was going to finish this mini-series of posts (if you have a proclivity for completeness like I do – you have)? Well, there was your wonder. Now that’s a wrap….

Just kidding. A while ago I read a chapter on the concept of wonder, and I’ve actually been searching for the book. I thought it was Ragamuffin Gospel, which is a crazy-good book nonetheless, but now I have no idea where I read it. The selection I read introduced me to the idea of praying for a sense of wonder. I have come to believe that one of the greatest tragedies we experience is being distracted from living a sense of wonder – being totally bowled over by how good He is, how creative He is, how merciful He is, how witty and clever He is. Many of us have lived life long enough with Him to know that He is amazing, but our awe is trampled by the weight of our concerns, our pain, our obligations, our overscheduling, etc…

He is worthy of our wonder.

Heavenly Father, please astound us with Your greatness. Give us eyes that are ever amazed by You: the fragility and complexity of a newborn, the absolute perfection of Your Word, a glassy, placid lake, color and clouds and mountains and hummingbirds and jellyfish and humor and marriage and chocolate and miracles and Your presence and Your whisper and tears. You are masterful in Creation, and You are tender in relationship. Please allow us to marvel at Your goodness every day and bless us with a sharp wonder. Oh, that we not be dulled to Your extravagance.

So it’s my assertion that wonder is eternal, and when we experience it in fleeting snippets here – that wide-eyed astonishment at our God – we feebly glimpse how we will know Him in eternity.

Hurry robs us of a close relationship with Him.

Wait creates opportunity for relationship with Him.

And wonder grows out of that relationship as we train our eyes to see the magnificence of Him in our mundane.

I’m better at waiting than I am at hurrying. That is unless I have to wait when I’m in a hurry, and then that’s ugly.

You know, it’s interesting that the concept of waiting has gotten a bad rap. A wait at a restaurant, a doctor’s office, or a salon is totally a negative thing, an unacceptable thing. I’m not sure that has always been the case. I’m totally guessing, but people from other periods in history had to be very accustomed to waiting for things. Waiting for the crops to provide a harvest. Waiting to go to town to make a new purchase. Waiting for months to hear from family members who lived away. Heck, I don’t know what all kinds of things they waited for, but I know they didn’t live in the time of instant gratification. Essentially, we refuse to wait. Around Christmas and birthdays, I’ll pay outrageous shipping rates because I’m not willing to wait to get my stuff. And if we do choose to wait, we’re generally not happy about it at all.

But waiting is a concept that is often addressed in Scripture – specifically waiting upon the Lord. We don’t wait on the Lord because He is slow or inattentive. We wait on the Lord because He is perfect. Which makes His timing perfect.

God has spent great effort schooling me in waiting on Him – learning the value of the wait. In November 2006, Chris and I first participated in a conversation about being part of a new church in Florence. There was a really small group of us who felt called to be part of something that did not currently exist in our city. I spontaneously combusted after that; I had never been ablaze about anything in my life – period. Until God planted the kudzu of a church start in my heart; it took over my life. All of our lives. In a very good way. We prayed individually; we prayed as couples; we prayed collectively. And I don’t say that to congratulate ourselves. I’m just trying to convey our desperation.  We knew what God had told us, but there was no church start in sight.  Just a clear call and a white-hot passion. We asked Him for it. We begged Him for it. We read books. We read blogs. We listened to sermons; we studied the Bible together. And it was not until March 2008, sixteen months of many twists, turns, and tears, that we very specifically received an answer to our prayers – NewSpring Church’s Florence campus was coming soon. It has been the greatest move of God that I have ever seen in my life, and I am anticipating much more mind-blowing movement in the future.

BUT, let me be very clear here. The wait is where it happened. The wait is where I pursued Him more passionately than I ever have in my life. The wait is where He pointed out issues in me that needed to change. The wait is where He humbled me, asked me to sacrifice, and taught me that apart from Him I can do nothing. To rob Beth Moore, relationship happens in the wait. The wait is the point. The process is the point. I had to get to a place where I could honestly say, “If the church never comes to be, the process was still worth the journey.” And I think I did reach that point, and I honestly have to admit that as tickled as I am that the answer has come, I miss the wait. Truly. I miss the anticipation and the desperation. Kinda like the anticipation of Christmas morning – only amplified.

So if you’ve been praying a heart’s desire for some time now; don’t assume He said, “No!” He may be setting the table right before you in small ways that you have failed to notice. Seek Him like crazy, listen and watch. ‘Cause it’s the greatest show on Earth, hands down!

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation (Psalm 5:3).