Desires of your Heart

My wife and I got back from Branson, Missouri very early this morning. We spent the first week of our marriage in the "Christan Vegas". It's funny how we ended up in Branson. My aunt and uncle let us use their time share and the only thing available last week was Florida or Branson. Neither of us are big on Florida, so we opted for Missouri.

Over the last week I've learned a lot of things. I learned that sales tax is really high in Missouri, 9.6%. I learned that Indiana has really high gas prices, close to $0.20 more per gallon than Ohio. I learned that 5 hour energy really does work. I learned that every country radio station between Canton, Ohio, and Branson, Missouri plays the same 12 songs over and over. And I was also reminded that God provides.

Janette and I got to Branson planning just to do some inexpensive things, and a lot of free hiking. On Monday, our first full day in Branson, we got invited to a sit in on a time share pitch, the company knowing we weren't going to buy, and they gave us very inexpensive passes to two of the attractions there. Later in the week we had another invitation to another time share company that gave us free passes to another attraction. It was stuff we had been interested in, but couldn't have afforded.

One of the things we got cheap tickets to had a pre-show with a juggler. Part way through the show he had a kid come up on stage and was trying to teach him how to juggle. It ended up being part of the act. The kid was a world famous juggler, and the guys step son. It was really neat to see. But as the juggler was introducing his step son and talking about how he had started juggling it hit me. God gave this kid a talent to throw several objects in the air and catch them, and then He gave him a step dad to help him develop that talent.

I look at how Janette and I ended up in Branson. My aunt had given us a book with over 2,000 resorts to choose from, and said "Pick". Our first choice had been Williamsburg, Virginia, followed by either of the Carolinas, Branson was no where on our list. Early last week I had the news on looking for the local weather, and I saw hurricane Irene moving towards Florida, Janette and I both were really glad we both had no desire to go there. As the week progressed and Irene moved up the east coast, into the Carolinas and Virginia, it hit me, God sent us to Branson so we could have a full week together, away from everything.

Planning a wedding is stressful, and I didn't even do much. We had been looking forward to this past week for months. Getting away from everything, having our phones turned off, just being together. We would have hated for that to have been cut short. We wanted last week together, it was a desire of our hearts, and God gave it to us. We didn't get it at first, but now we see, God provided.

I look back over the past year, August 2010 to August 2011, and it's been an unbelievable twelve months. Last year at this time I had no idea that I would be married to my best friend and the senior pastor of a church in just twelve months. Both of those things have been the desires of my heart for years, and God gave them to me.

Psalm 37.4 says, "Delight yourself in the LORD;and He will give you the desires of your heart." Janette and I have really made that our verse, because it's the only reason for our story. That same Psalm says in verse 25, "I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread." As I look on the desires of my heart that God has given me, and I begin to look at the uncertainties of the future I simply need to remember verse 25, the righteous will not be forsaken. Anyone with a right standing relationship with God will not be forsaken. God will provide.

One thing I forgot to mention when I first posted this is somthing I didn't realize until I was leaving the office yesterday. When we walked out of the second time share pitch we were told that one of the things that we were being given for our time was a free two night stay at one of eight other resorts owned by the company. One of them was Williamsburg, Virginia, the place we had originally wanted to go. God provided a week in Branson, and trip to Williamsburg. "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Peace be with you