Harry Potter Meets Jim Carrey

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with an old movie starring Jim Carrey where he is given the power to grant people's prayers, essentially play God, for a time. His response is to say "yes " to every prayer which, as you can imagine, leads to some regrettable outcomes.     

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Awoken to audible peals of laughter, I arose from my sleep, only to realize the laughs were mine. (Whoops, I do that sometimes. Better than snoring, right?) At once memories of an amazing dream surfaced, one where I lived in an apartment complex and was secretly allowed to grant people's wishes. Many of the people's wishes involved fairytale like objects: magic wands, hats with giant plumes and invisibility capes. There was one kindly gentleman who, upon being granted his wish, was so giddy with his new found "power" he began to wreak havoc upon the apartment. Levitating, spinning and flying objects began to chase us throughout the halls. After I became hit with one especially nasty medal object, regrettably I knew I would have to take back all of the wishes I had granted. The gentleman apologized afterwards, recognizing how the new power had affected him. He had no intentions of being so wily and meant no harm, all he sought was a little fun and all I wanted was to surprise my friends with happiness.

You can be jealous, it was an awesome dream! But, as you know, not all things in my life are quite as awesome. I have been overheard saying that if I could be granted one wish it would be purely selfish and to be cured. Yep, you read that correctly. I'm not the superstar you thought, right? But I believe it's natural to want to escape pain/trial so while I wish I was above it, I'm not. I've been bitter and angry with God about my suffering, my AS and my seemingly ever growing list of health problems. And I think, "Why won't you heal me?!"

Cue 2 Corinthians 12 again, where Paul discusses his ambiguous thorn. Again, we don't know what the pain Paul must endure is, just that God has not, in his wisdom, chosen to relieve Paul of it. Paul says, "to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh" (NLT). Perhaps Paul would  have caused massive amounts of levitating and zooming objects without his thorn?

Romans 11.33-34 "oh the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable are his ways? For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?" (ESV)

There is a reason Jim Carrey is not God (can I get a big fat A-men to that one?) and there is a reason I'm not either. I wake up in the morning and have no idea where my pants are let alone how to get the sun to rise or whose prayers I should say yes and no to. God is abundantly larger than me and my little mind, his knowledge I cannot comprehend.  Albeit frustrating at times when I don't understand but perhaps, much like the kindly gentlemen in my dream, as well meaning as I might be, I might not be able to stop myself from taking out neighbors with flying toys, brooms and refrigerators. Sometimes the answer is no and I just have to trust that there is a reason. 

God is good all the time, it just doesn't always feel like it