Do You Expect God to Fulfill Your Heart’s Desires?

Secret Desires

Sometimes I think the thought of admitting the desires of our heart to the Creator of the universe scares us (as if he didn’t already know). We fall into two camps: we expect nothing (humility rules) or we expect God to bless us with millions (prosperity rules). Let me tell you a little story about one of my secret desires.

Blame it on the Birds!

I forgot to mention an important fact yesterday when I told about buying the Beast. Not only had I taken my car to the dealership for maintenance, I decided to coordinate the trip so that I could go birding.

For those of you who have never heard the term ‘birding’ before, let me explain. People who like birds and want to know more about them, might buy a pair of binoculars so they can see the birds up close. The interest may grow to the point of the curious person purchasing a bird identification book. The next stage includes spending intentional time outdoors trying to find and identify birds.

Once this happens, the slippery slope to full-fledged birder has commenced. Phone apps and life-lists and regular outings for the sole purpose of finding birds follow in quick succession.

I remember hearing my great-aunt Lillian talk about birds and her vacations spent in the pursuit of rare birds. Her behavior made me giggle. Imagine! Going on a vacation JUST to find a bird! Evidently, Lillian had a huge impact on my life, not only will I follow in her footsteps and run a marathon in the next eight months, I go on vacations just to find birds.

Buying the Beast

On that fateful day that we bought Pedro’s truck, I had left early so I could stop by my favorite birding haunt before meeting up with the school for a weekend camping trip. If I hadn’t gone early, I wouldn’t have had time to buy his truck. Pedro jokes that I went birding and bagged a truck instead.

Two years later, an odd thing happened when we went on a weekend camping trip and I chose to go birding in the wee hours of the morning whilst everyone else went four-wheeling.

It all started when Pedro had to pack for the camping trip by himself. I usually do 80% of the packing because I work fewer hours and have the time. After four hours of packing everything necessary for a four-day camping trip in the desert, Pedro felt exhausted. For several years I had joked about us needing a trailer every time I spent hours and hours packing.

Pedro finally understood. Especially when he had to pack everything into the truck (his quad, his safety equipment, food, stove, water, tent, camping shower, port-a-potty, sleeping bags) AND leave room for one student and her stuff. Once we dropped the student off in Phoenix, Pedro suggested that we check out used trailers.

Fruitless Pursuit

We spent four hours driving all over Phoenix on a hot spring day and didn’t find anything that met our requirements AND our budget. We enjoyed three days of camping with my parents (I even got my mom to go bird watching with me).

On our last day, Valentine’s Day, I decided to get up super early and drive to a birding hotspot I’d heard about but never visited before. On the way there, I drove past the Arizona Cardinals stadium and noticed that an RV dealership had set up camp with thousands of RVs.

I decided that I’d drive by after I finished birding. One thing led to another. We found the perfect trailer—it had plenty of storage room so we could live in it when we retired. The shower in the bathroom had ample space for a tall person. I loved the floor plan and the inside colors and most of all, the bonus kitchen on the outside (perfect for fixing food for groups of students on camping trips).

When Pedro saw the photos I texted him, he loved it. I did worry about whether or not he would fit on the bed, so I ended up driving all the way out to our campsite, picking him up and returning to the RV show.

It turns out that he fit, but we had to look through a bunch of other RVs just to make sure we had really found the one we wanted. After signing the papers, I asked the salesman if we could drive our truck around to make sure that we liked the truck and trailer combination. I know, I know. Who worries about whether or not their truck looks good with their trailer?

God Coordinates the Desires of Our Hearts

Evidently me. I have my reasons. If I psychoanalyze myself, I think my love for things that coordinate comes from the chaos of my caregiving experiences. Coordinated colors soothe me and speak to a part of my soul that longs for peace.

The funny thing? God knew the desires of my heart. He knows me better than I know myself. I’m not the kind of gal that would go out and buy a flashy red truck, but that’s the bargain dream truck that God put in our way. Think about all the trailers you’ve seen over the years. How many of them would coordinate well with a flashy red truck?

God knows us better than we know ourselves. #write31days Click To Tweet

Not many. As we drove the Beast past the guard and down the row to the spot where our new trailer sat, I looked over at Pedro and said, “You know what we’ll have to call the trailer, right?”

We share a sense of humor, so it only took him a second to nod his head and say, “Beauty.”

There you have it: Beauty and the Beast. God had prepared everything so that the next quiet desire of my heart could take place. I felt the need to spend time with Sarah and to allow God to restore some of those years that the locust had eaten.

The only problem in our way was that she’s a busy college student who spends her summers working to help pay for her education. In Alaska.

Beauty Tip: When we share the desires of our heart with God, he coordinates things beyond our expectations.

Q4U: Has God ever coordinated a surprise for you that kind of blew you away?

Inspire Me Monday Instructions

What’s your inspirational story? Link up below, and don’t forget the 1-2-3s of building community:

1. Link up your most inspirational post from the previous week.

2. Vist TWO other contributors (especially the person who linked up right before you) and leave an encouraging comment.

3. Spread the cheer THREE ways! Tweet something from a post you read, share a post on your Facebook page, stumble upon it, pin it or whatever social media outlet you prefer–just do it!

Continued from yesterday. You can read more about the journey here.