With rare exception, I dislike Jim Carrey movies, but one in particular teaches a powerful lesson about work and rewards. In the movie "Bruce Almighty" God gives Bruce the power to act in His stead, and Bruce decides to make things easy so as not to be distracted from his will by simply giving everyone what they demand. Soon this makes problems for Buffalo NY until God returns and sets things right. Far too often in our lives, we insist that God give us everything we like, whether that God is our Father in Heaven or government, only to discover that we're neither happy nor well. Truly, James Madison proved prescient that what we achieve easily we esteem lightly.
For most of Barack Obama's presidency, this nation lived under a Democrat dominated government that could deliver what denizens demanded. Despite all of their achievements- amnesty, Obamacare, gun control measures, a bloated budget, ad infinitum, neither the Democrat politicians nor their constituents are happy. They got everything they demanded, but they are not satiated. They demand more. Apparently they forgot that Barbossa taught us that all the pleasurable company, fine food, and drink cannot slake our lusts. Barack Almighty answered their prayers, and although he didn't give them everything, he gave them things that Democrat politicians have promised for decades, and the people are still miserable, poor, and far from panacea.
Many people in life complain when God doesn't answer their prayers even though most of them defy His commandments. We assume that we know what we truly desire, that we know what's good for us, and that our plan and vision is better than His. Despite what Isaiah wrote, we think our way is higher, better, and purer than God's and we demand our will be done. Then we often have to crawl before Him and petition Him to fix our plight and humbly wait whilst God unties the knot we made. We constantly go after things that are not good for us or are not good when it comes to God's intend regarding us, and so sometimes He intercedes to protect us from ourselves when we go after things we ought to ignore. He knows that if we get everything we claim we want we will serve the natural man and end up far from fulfillment of our eternal potential.
If God gave us everything we asked, we would become dependent on Him rather than like Him. Consider what you would be likely to do if God were more of a genie than a deity. By a rub of the lamp, god would appear and grant your every wish immediately, even if it wasn't good for you or what you actually intended to request. We'd end up with things we didn't need, didn't want, didn't like, and didn't intend because it would come easily. Rather than working, we'd turn to him to wave a magic wand and make all of our dreams come true. Soon, we'd cease appreciating what we have because we could have anything we like. Nothing would have value, including our lives, if we could simply have everything we like. The value of a thing is in what it takes to acquire it. That's why people waste easy money, avoid easy women, and whine when they have everything they asked.
God denies us immediate gratification because the value of a thing is partially related to what it costs us. If a thing costs us little, then we esteem it as dross and refuse. When everything comes easily, we esteem nothing. This is why the liberal panacea is no panacea. When everything comes cheaply, nothing will. We cannot be satisfied by having everything. We choose things that are unwise. If everyone won the lottery, we'd all get $5, and that's hardly worth the effort. If everyone's team wins, there are no losers. Everything has its opposite so that we can learn to eschew the evil and relish the virtuous. In a time of "your way right away" and "on demand TV" and whatever whenever, the poor of today do not realize that they are better off in many cases than the wealthy of yesteryear. Without having to achieve, they see only that others have more and turn to envy. For this reason, particularly between Thanksgiving and Christmas, God asks us to possess an attitude of gratitude because it gives us perspective. I do not live in my car. I do not have arthritis. I am not living in a country at war. I have a roof over my head, money in the bank, food in the fridge, and friends on the other end of the phone. Sure, life could be better, but I thank God for all of my blessings, even sometimes for the unanswered prayer. For now, His message in some cases is, "Not yet", but that means that one day it might be. What should be will be when the time is right. Who am I to say when that is?
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