I asked a simplified question back on May 10, but it appears we need to go deeper. Let me ask it a little differently:
What do you really, really want?
I can rattle off a series of things, but I’m not asking about material stuff, I’m asking about what do you want? What is it that would truly fulfill you? I’ve asked various people that question many times and more people can’t answer it than can. It’s like an itch that you just can’t reach and only one person can scratch it, but you don’t know that person and you certainly don’t know that person in that way.
You might readily agree with me when I say:
1.) Not many people actually know what they really, truly want.
But if they do know what they want,
2.) They don’t know how to get it.
A musical hero of mine, Jimi Hendrix, sang, “I know what I want, but I just don’t know how to go about gettin’ it,” in The Jimi Hendrix Experience song, “Manic Depression.” He was expressing his massive frustration with life in that he knew what he wanted, which is an incredible revelation all on its own, but he was apparently trapped in a joy-cancelling spiritual environment where gaining this ‘thing’ he wanted simply was not possible, at least with the tools/methods he was using. Jimi was an immensely gifted guitarist (considered one of the all-time greats) and had a meteoric rise to popularity based largely on a combination of his other-worldly playing methods and obsession to his art. He was a game-changing talent and a musical pioneer as to the possibilities of what a guitar can or cannot do.
He was like a bronco-busting wrangler in the Wild West wrestling his upside-down guitar between Heaven and Earth to grapple this wild steed and break its will to serve its master. The battle would almost be won, but Jimi met his match. In his efforts to become a guitar master, he learned nobody masters drugs and alcohol, they master you. Jimi, though his mind was riddled with manic depression (Bipolar) evidently wasn’t willing to be vulnerable —broken— to serve his Master. He kept fighting a battle he could not win instead of allowing Jesus to fight for him.
Ultimately, Jimi went about trying to get that Godly thing he desired in un-Godly ways. God places desires in our hearts, but He calls us to fulfill those Godly desires in Godly ways. He outlined how He expected Jewish people to act in the Old Testament, expanding the Law in the Book of Leviticus and simplifying the Law in Ten Commandments. Jesus went back to basics and re-iterated the pure essence of the Law. Jimi had a Godly desire to be the best and to display the gift of God without shrinking back. Take what happened with Adam and Eve: they had a godly desire, but went about trying to fulfill it in an ungodly way. They had a Godly desire to gain knowledge, but they used a directly un-Godly method in which to gain it … plus, they brought a curse on all their descendants as a result.
Have you been frustrated by seeking and working and struggling and manipulating and networking and sweating and doing what you believe is right and even what you know is wrong, but only have been unfulfilled? That feeling of being unfulfilled can only be replaced by fulfillment when we do what God has created us to do. Did you notice something? It’s not about getting that house on that street, that car, that career position, that lover, that great feeling, that big, juicy steak and lobster meal, or that jacket or pair of shoes. Nothing but an intimate relationship with the One, True God that compels you to spiritual excellence will ever satisfy that urge for importance and that deep desire to know and be known.
Your deep frustration with the way certain things are, that anger that boils inside like lava at spiritual and social injustice, and that disenchantment you feel regarding that deep desire to unite with others who agree with your perspectives and simply enjoy being around you just for who you are are actually unsatisfied urges God has placed in your heart for you to discover and use as the fuel to thrust you into the places He has called you to go. There are going to be things that frustrate, anger, and disenchant us all, but we can choose to control the things we can control and pray about and seek guidance from God regarding the things we can’t control.
So … what do you really, really, really want? The clue to your breakthrough — and the rest of your life — is in the answer.
Prayer
Lord God, I cannot tell You how frustrated I have been, how angry I have been, and how disenchanted I have been with the way my life — and the world — has gone. I thank You, Lord, for the grace that guides me through my emotions and brings me to places of peace even as You call me to rest beside streams of living waters. You are those streams and I desire to spend more time with You, my Father. I need to know You more. I want to know You more. I want You to be everything to me as much as You have been everything to the universe. I thank You for being my Sustainer and Bondage Breaker. I remain in bondage, Lord, to things I can’t even put my finger on, but I know You are familiar with them all. I ask that You would take me to a place where I am completely limp in Your mighty hands so I can gain the freedom I need and so I can fall deeper in love with You. I choose, today, to release the frustration I have felt with the way evil people in the media are trying to manipulate our feelings to try to sway us to think as they do. So many of them, Lord, oppose You and Your works. If I am opposing You in any way, shape, or form, please let me know. Also, please let me know what I am doing wrong so I don’t do those things anymore, I choose to let You be God and I will be Your child. Thank You, Lord for Your power that’s at work in me to will and to act according to Your good purposes. In Jesus’ mighty name, amen!
Thank you to equipboard.com for the use of the photo of Jimi Hendrix.
* How many talented people have been stunted by the lack of creative support in our churches? The number would be staggering based simply on the sheer amount of popular professional performers who grew up “cutting their teeth” in the choir/worship team then made it big only after leaving their respective churches for the secular world!
Could you imagine a Church where he would have been accepted and loved so he could have brought glory to God with his musical abilities? It’s fun to imagine how Jimi could have impacted the world for the Gospel with the talents he possessed.
The banner painting is entitled, “Desire,” and I painted it before I got saved. God has a plan, does He not? Hallelujah!
