Do you remember the last time there was something you really wanted? When I was a freshman in college, I wanted so badly to make the tennis team. I remember thinking about the tryouts for weeks in advance, practicing many hours a day to make sure I was ready, and even making sure I ate just the right things and slept just the right amount to optimize my performance. I suspect, before the tryouts, I even said a prayer: “God, let me make this team!”

We ask God for all kinds of things – for Aunt Petunia to be healed; for an open parking spot when the meeting is about to start; for a longer vacation. Sometimes they are things we really want. Sometimes they are things we really need. God is happy for us to ask for both kinds, because it means we’re talking to him.

Still, we should be wary of thinking about God as a giant Santa Claus in the sky who exists to give us whatever we currently crave. When the psalmist says that God will give us our heart’s desire, it doesn’t quite mean that we can go to God to get our wishes fulfilled. It means, rather, that God will teach us how to desire better things, eternal things that will never fade away.

Sometimes, when God seems to say “no” to our immediate requests, it’s because he’s preparing us for a deeper and much more lasting “yes.”

I didn’t make the tennis team that year, but instead God gave me a new group of friends who introduced me to Jesus in a new way – friends I wouldn’t have made if I had been playing tennis all the time. God said “no” to my more superficial request, and gave me instead a far deeper and more lasting gift, the gift of faith. God can always use our prayers, whatever they are, to help us grow.

When we delight in him, as the psalmist says, the Lord and his everlasting love become our heart’s truest desire. After all, the Lord’s heart has a desire, too. What he wants above all is to give us himself, so that we can enjoy him forever.

God bless you!

Fr. Mac