What God takes away or gives us now in our life hinges on the calling and purposes He has for our future
We only have less than the thing we dream about without actually having it . . . whether it is a big dream or small dream, that's just how we see it. I believe it is meant to be that way so we don't go through life thinking we have all we are meant to have.
What we desire is usually a reflection of what we are called to.
This is at least true to a degree, although where we take that dream in our thoughts determines how closely true it actually is to what God wants for our lives.
At the same time, I don't think God wants us living in a way that leaves us crippled and less of a human being because we don't have that thing we desire.
Eventually, God aligns our desires with His will, and when that happens, there is a great peace in knowing that, in the right timing, He will give us what His dreams for our life has been all along.
But we first have to surrender our own dreams so we can have the vacancy in our hearts for His dreams to land.
Joe is a 98' Forest-Green Jeep Wrangler with a four liter V6 engine in it. It's lifted 6 inches and runs on 35" tires. Over the years he has had some modifications and upgraded parts due to his older age . . . I mean, he is 20 years old now! He is getting up there for sure!
He has been with me through a lot of my younger years, almost through all of my twenties, so you can imagine the adventures me and him have had.
I know I am not the only guy out there who takes a serious bond to inanimate objects . . . it's just what we do.
But, aside from what our strange shared masculine tendencies are concerned, to me, Joe is more than just a Jeep.
Let me explain . . .
Before I had the Jeep, I drove my dad's 86' Chevy Blazer. It was brown and tan and black. We shared a vehicle because I didn't have my own and my dad was generous enough to let me drive his.
I wanted a lifted vehicle really bad. I would dream of a smaller truck like a Toyota Tacoma or Jeep or even an old Suzuki Samurai (remember those!).
I remember I would sit on top of a folded up tarp to make me sort of taller in my that' Blazer. I drove it through high school and into the first years of college. The thing lost its ability to provide air condition, so for a few years I drove it through miserable Texas summers. But I learned to just be thankful for having a vehicle and I was at least appreciative for it having a really good heater in the winters.
Although that is all I had . . . that old 86' Blazer, in my heart, I wanted more.
I had settled on wanting a Jeep so I would use a water bottle and pretend it was a stick shifter because I knew most Jeeps came with manual transmission.
I would do that because I hoped one day I would have what I wanted . . . what I truly desired.
I had a hope for something I couldn't see but had a measurable hope for, so to me, it wasn't silly pretending to drive a manual transmission vehicle.
In my mind I was practicing for what "Might be the real thing some day."
I would shift away, practicing how I thought in my head it would be to drive my future Jeep one day . . . And I would think to myself, "One day."
That kept my hope alive . . . the thought of one day having my desires not just met but also manifested into something tangible.
Sure, I was much more innocent back then and hadn't gone through as much pain and disappointment and heart break I have experienced on the journey up to now, but still, God gave me that Jeep . . . the Jeep I desired.
He eventually gave me what I dreamt of and it was a special gift I knew very well that came in detailed portion from His hands.
I wasn't making much money during the time I was driving the Blazer around so I knew to get a newer vehicle, the practical side was I needed to be making more money to be able to make the payments each month.
So when I was hired at Home Depot, I knew the Jeep would soon follow.
Sure enough, it did.
It wasn't but months later that I found Joe in an add online.
I feel like this could have been some silly commercial for how guys can be with new "toys" but I literally ran up to the Jeep and just knew it was the one I had been dreaming of.
I had waited years for it . . . driving that no-air-conditioned piece of heaven my dad owned and searching and searching through different Jeeps to finally come to the place where it was just the right time.
Everything seemed to settle in and fit and it was all so clear that it was not only right but a dream come true.
That was what seemed to be an unspoken promise I just knew God had revealed to me.
The same day I bought the Jeep, I drove it to my girlfriend's house . . . granted, I didn't know how to drive a manual transmission aside from practicing with a water bottle, so I taught myself on the way to her house.
I stalled a few times, but no joke, that silly preparation I did in that Blazer set me up to not only receiving the blessing of having my desires fulfilled, but also set me up to be able to handle it properly.
I would later look back at that story, so seemingly perfect of how we should hope and have faith and wait for the promises of God, but realizing it wasn't a formula.
There is no equation to what God has for us.
In fact, it may look worse before it looks up . . . and it may not seem like anything is happening.
It wasn't all good feelings and just innocent faith in that story.
It was hard waiting for that day when I met Joe for the first time.
There were lots of Jeeps that were close to what I wanted . . . that had everything except a few things I didn't.
I had to let those "lesser" options go to wait for the real deal . . . the promise God had for me.
Anything less than what God had for us will never work out in the end.
I remember specifically going to look at an old brown CJ7 Jeep. It was lifted and had some big tires on it. I loved how old it was and was drawn to its unique brown color and vintage rugged appearance.
I was looking at it on the surface for what I saw and I desired it as such, caught up in the moment.
Sound familiar?
At the time and through my eyes and perspective, it was perfect.
But God knew better and saw things differently because He knew what He had in store for me if I waited.
He knew that even more so than a "cool" looking vehicle, I would need something just for me . . . and over the years of having Joe, I can totally see how it was the perfect vehicle for me.
But only God can see that. We definitely can't.
Left to our own devices, we will always choose what is less than because we simply do not know what we truly need and deeply want.
It was so hard to let that Jeep go because I knew deep down it was settling for something better, even though that "something better" was not there and the "better" thing God had was not.
I was disappointed, sure, but do you think I felt that same disappointment when I met Joe?
I am so grateful I passed that brown Jeep by to end up receiving what God had for me.
It came at the sacrifice of saying "No" to everything else and it came at the price of waiting for what God had, but it didn't make it any less worth it in the end.
Me and Joe have since been through a lot over the past decade. Through my twenties (which seems like each year amounted to two or three), we have been through . . . through changing seasons of transition in my life like in and out of college and jobs . . . churches and ministries . . . through break-ups and heart-breaks.
He doesn't look the same now as he did when I first bought him. He once looked so clean and new. Now he is beat up and shows proof of all the adventures we went on.
But isn't that how the journey goes? At first we are clean and new . . . and over the years we gain scars and stories along side those scars that tell of the adventure we have been on.
What is cool is God gave me something that He knew would help me through life. That Jeep has become a tangible icon of adventure that I feel deep in my heart.
What God takes away or gives us now in our life hinges on the calling and purposes He has for our future.
He will not give you less the what you will need for who He has called you to be and what He has called you to do . . . not if He is the one who provided it.
So what He closes the doors to now is only because He has something else that is probably perfectly suited for uniquely you and also what you will need to live out the life He has for you.
Having Joe is more than just having a really cool Jeep.
God proved Himself once and for all that He not only knows exactly what I wanted then as much as what I would even still want now, but He knew what I would need for the journey He would lead me through.
We all have a many "Joe" in our lives.
What is that thing for you?
What are those desires deep in your heart . . . the thing that seems like a promise from God . . . what is that?
God wants to be more important than the thing itself . . . and if having it is more important than what He wants for you, it's time to let it go.
It may be time to let a lot of things go . . . things you have held on to for years.
He sees your desires and knows exactly what you need and what you will desire truly for the rest of your life.
Let Him not only be the one who gives you the desires in the first place, but also the one who causes them to become something you can see and touch.
