Wisdom and pop culture aren’t often entities that intermingle, but every now and then wisdom is proclaimed through the words of popular artists who endure the human experience as everyone else does. The Rolling Stones, for example, in one song declare, “You can’t always get what you want / But if you try sometimes you just might find / You get what you need.” These lyrics of classic rock struck a chord not only literally, but, for me, figuratively after I underwent a disappointment common to all. With a heart aching and brimming with questions, I found comfort in the airwaves. Particularly because they carried a message that brought to mind a promise that God has for His children, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). In our Father’s hands all things, even things painful, work out for the good of His children. Though we don’t always get what we so want, we ultimately receive what we need.
But what of the promise offered in Psalm 37:4? David writes, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Often discontentment for Christ’s followers is worsened when they’ve felt that though they’ve delighted in the Lord, their desires haven’t been fulfilled. Even more, disappointment is often agonizing when a desire’s fulfillment ceases to be. The believer, who thought their desire to be of God, is left to painfully wonder why circumstances or relationships dear to them were taken away. These situations, especially when one is in the midst of them, are often confounding. But our confusion often chases us to the feet of our Father, and it is there that our desires are refined. For though we often feel that our desires are in line with the Lord’s, we are sometimes mistaken. It is when we have circumstantial rugs pulled from under us that we are made to seek again the One who is our true foundation. In this quest we are drawn closer to Him; in our disillusionment we come to a greater understanding of who He is. As C.S. Lewis states in his book A Grief Observed,
"Images of the Holy easily become holy images-sacrosanct. My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of his presence? The incarnation is the supreme example; it leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins. And most are 'offended' by the iconoclasm; and blessed are those who are not."
When our desires are deferred, we must not shake our fists at the Lord. Many of the Israelites hoped their Messiah to be One to defeat the political tyranny that permeated their everyday lives; yet it seemed instead that Christ was defeated as He hung upon the Roman cross. What seemed an ironic, tragic, and even foolish end for the self-proclaimed Messiah, turned out to be the greatest victory of all time. It was a victory beyond what many could conceive, for on the third day, after those who loved Him had spent hours grieving, and after he was laid to rest, Christ rose again, completing a work that would spare multitudes from the most excruciating grief of eternal punishment. Christ’s crucifixion is probably the most dramatic example of how “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
On a smaller scale, our daily disappointments and sporadic heartaches are events meant to draw us closer to the Lord. Though many desires are felt to be legitimate, as one learns to delight in the Lord, one often finds that desires change since they are refined to conform to His will. This refinement often comes when desires aren’t met, or hearts get broken. God uses painful situations to render for us a more vivid picture of who He is, and thus what He wants our desires to be. He wants us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. In doing so, we will come to desire what He desires, and that is when “all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). In all, our delighting might be borne first of sorrowing. We don’t always get what we want, but when God is the One to whom we run in the midst of our pain, we always get what we need, for He refines our hearts, and makes straight our paths.
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