When we want something we don’t want to wait for it. It’s partially why we choose to cook food in the microwave, but don’t settle for a temporary fix when God is available and wanting to fill you up!
Did I struggle going to God first when I left the hospital with the news I’d have to be taken care of for the rest of my life? No because everyone else around me had their minds made up! I was 23 years old at the time and wasn’t going to settle for life basically seeming over!
The Bible tells us, “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.” James 4:2 NLT
I wanted my starting spot back, I wanted to check our College National Rankings and see my name at the number 1 spot again. I wanted to smile and see my teeth touch. I wanted to hear people tell me how much I was going to win or ask me if I was going to win a National title that year! I wanted to put in 3 workouts a day so I wouldn’t get fatigued and dominated my opponents for the entire 7 minutes but my reality was severe brain trauma, memory misplacement, a fractured spine, hematoma and a broken Jaw in two places that repaired on its own while I was in a coma! I just wanted to eventually wake up and realize everything up to that point was only a dream!
Now when we pray you aren’t going to hear what you want to hear. The Bible says….
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
Did I pray the what seems easy to pray prayers? Yes,
“God can I please wrestle again?”
“God can I please function on my own again by myself normally?”
“God will you please clear me?”
“God can I please finish my senior year of school?”
“God do I have to live in my parent’s living room?”
“God can I just have my life back?”
Did I receive simple easy quick answers? NO I did not!
I had to keep praying, I had to keep working doing all that I was able to do, a lot of rehab, a lot of tears fell from face, I would shadow wrestle in the house by myself and with my little brothers at times, I’d watch film of myself and other greats, I had to get my jaw rebroken and wired up, I had to relearn balance and simple things we take for granted everyday but in doing that I created an opportunity to thrive! I was able to eventually move back to Des Moines and restart my senior year of college.
I was eventually cleared to start wrestling again but I had to lose about 40 extra pounds I put on. Depression doesn’t eat at you, it kind of feeds you if you look at it that way!
I didn’t have to live in my parent’s living room anymore!
I not only got my life back, I got a hunger that eats at me to keep achieving things! I’m now in Grad school becoming a counselor, I have the opportunity to win something bigger than a National title! I’ve jumped out of a plane and God gave me a testimony to carry with me all the days of my life. When you are left to only trust God don’t worry because God is the only one that will make things lastingly better! It’s not easy just worth it!
You have to be patient
God is like a crock pot. Having faith isn’t just praying to God about it and hoping to hear back right away. What you’re praying for is being worked out, that’s what faith is. You pray about it until God clearly shows you want you’re praying for God to show you. What God does then is miraculous. He exceeds our prayers and he provides for us in abundance because we trust in him.
Instead of us putting it in our own hands and accepting the meal out of the microwave, we give it to God and receive the meal from the crockpot. Trusting in God might mean waiting a little bit or longer. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon, faith is a long term strategy to really win.
