(Being a comic strip creator was one of the jobs I thought would be cool to have.)
Yesterday I said to Pete, "Why is there a piece of cheese on your shoulder?"
Later I said, "No, you cannot floss your teeth while sitting on the toilet."
(Reason -- he would be there forever and other people need to use the bathroom. Plus, it is just weird.)
I just roll my eyes, sigh and go on.
I wonder if God feels anything similar when we think up some silly prayer requests or pursue things that are definitely not in His will?
Does He roll His eyes and sigh because we are so like sheep? So silly and helpless and ridiculous at times?
I believe if a person really wants to do something nothing can stop him or her. If you have a dream I am all for you pursuing it. But this can be taken too far. It has with me. I get into these moods where I think this about myself and go off on ridiculous tangents. The ones I can remember are (and these are from the last few years -- not when I was a child): be a ballet dancer; a mechanic; a nurse; a counselor; sell cosmetics, be a romance novelist, a mystery novelist; be a pilot. I will say I thought of all these in hopes of benefitting my family financially (oh yeah, for a while I thought it would be cool to be the first female SD governor but I detest politics).
Nothing is wrong with any of these for some people, but none of them would work for me.
A ballet dancer -- I have bad feet and where would I be a ballet dancer professionally in the middle of South Dakota? Plus, I am 48 years old!
A mechanic -- I am not mechanically inclined at all. I had trouble putting a lego model together. Pete had to do it.
A nurse -- A noble profession but my situation makes this one pretty much impossible. Plus, I have never taken chemistry and this just isn't viable for me.
A counselor -- Again, good profession, but even if I became this (which would take loads of school and clinical work that would not be possible for me) I would do it for free and so it wouldn't benefit my family at all.
Sell cosmetics -- I don't wear much make-up and I hate selling things.
A romance novelist -- I don't usually read romance books at all.
A mystery novelist -- And I don't read mysteries usually.
A pilot -- really? That one is just ridiculous.
With almost all these I bought at least one book to help me in my pursuit of the new career. With the ballet dancer profession I bought two sets of ballet slippers.
These all were tangents that distracted me from the direction God has me going. I know God just kind of rolled His eyes and said, "There she goes again."
Tangents in life can be fun, but they can waste time and energy and resources. We each have a purpose and we can only be truly fulfilled when we are living within that purpose. Jesus has chosen you. You just need to embrace Him.
He says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you." John 15:16