38. Be Good, Have Wants

In the last 77% Weekly entitled, God calling: "What do you want?" you were encouraged to list what you want for 10 minutes.

This deceptively simple question — What do you want? — perplexes many.

Today I want to examine why it can be so difficult to know what we want. The answer is simple: we’ve been conditioned to repress our wants. We learned not to ask for what we want.

As children we were told that big kids don't ask for what they want. We were told that good boys and good girls don't ask for whatever it was they desire — some candy, a toy, attention, or even affection. We wanted to be big and we wanted to be good, so we learned not to ask when we wanted.

As a result of this training, many of us think that we are better off when we have fewer needs or demands of others. (I find this is especially true of nice people.) We think that it is a mark of maturity to not have wants and needs — and so, we don't.

After time, like an atrophied muscle, we no longer remember that we in fact do want things, and we have usually also forgotten how to ask for what we do realize that we need.

Ask a child what they want for their birthday, and they can tell you. Tell an adult that you’ve got God on the phone and that they can ask for anything they desire and, well, they look at you funny.

How about you?

Is it possible for you to allow yourself to look into your heart and figure out what it is that you really want?

Relating this to your personalized religious experience.

• How could God — if there were a God who wanted to lavish you with gifts the way Santa makes children’s wishes come true — how could that God give you what you want if you don’t ask? (And no, it's not God's job to both be a mind reader and get you those things.)

Does your list include:

• joy.
• health.
• serenity.
• resplendence.
• a sense of humor.
• seeing God.
• loving God.
• following God.

Final thought:

• What can you do about getting the things you want?

With love,


And, if you care to, click here to see comments on the streetprophets site where the article also went up this week.