“Sometimes we behave like children in a toy shop. We want this, and that, and then something else. The many options confuse us and create an enormous restlessness in us. When someone says, “Well, what do you want? You can have one thing. Make up your mind,” we do not know what to choose. As long as our hearts keep vacillating among these many wants, we cannot move forward in life with inner peace and joy. That is why we need inner and outer disciplines, to go beyond these wants and discover our mission in life.”
Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (New York: HarperCollins, 1997) daily reading for 22 April.
What do you want?
I recall my mom telling me that her grandfather would say something like this: “I have everything I need because I have learned to control my wants?” That’s the role of the disciplines: to learn to limit our wants and to keep our focus where it should be.
What do I want? I want what David (the psalmist) said he wanted.
One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple. Psalm 27:4
I am finding that I can’t even think about being generous if I am not content with Christ and thankful that my basic needs are met (cf. Philippians 4:12-13; 1 Timothy 6:8). I used to think I needed so much. I am learning to control my wants.
I pray these meditations encourage you to this end as well.