Want More
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I made a major decision when I was eighteen years old that has shaped the rest of my life since. I spent some time with a middle-aged man who had lived a relatively uneventful life defined by modest success and a nice family. He was a good man. I liked him a lot.
One day, he offered me some life advice from his personal story. “Terry,” he said. “I never asked God for too much. I just told Him I wanted a nice, quiet life and to be able to help a few people along the way. And I told God that I didn’t want to suffer too much. That’s exactly what I have.”
At just eighteen years old, I knew I wanted more, and I recall thinking that I bet God was thinking more — more than this guy had ever dreamed of. In that moment, I resolved not to confine my aspirations to telling God what was in my mind, as this nice man had done, but to instead ask God what was in His.
Here’s the point I’d like to make: I think people often settle for less than the abundance God offers. Now let me clarify, I don’t necessarily think most people live their lives striving to be average, but regardless of our intentions, that’s where many of us find ourselves. Somehow, we learn to want less throughout the journey and miss out on living lives filled with more meaning and purpose, given by God.
You may be someone who feels that you are living a life that is good enough, or that you’ve hit your ceiling. Maybe you’re well-educated, contributing meaningfully both corporately and communally. But what if I told you even more exists for you out there? What if you opened yourself to the possibility that God has dreams and purpose and meaning stirring inside you — that you’re potentially not even aware of yet.
Or maybe you feel the opposite, wrestling with the weight of feeling unfulfilled and wondering if more for you even exists. I encourage you to combat this survivor’s mentality, waiting for God to just move at a whim, making things happen at the snap of His fingers when He feels like it. Our destiny as humans is not to be a puppet to God, the grand puppeteer. That’s a sad view of life. And a wrong one, at that.
If you find yourself feeling like this, please hear me:
You can partner with God to create a better future, and, ultimately, a better life for yourself, for those you love, for the world around you. Our true Creator births visions and ideas in our minds and gives us the will to do something about it!
I believe there are levels to living in our God-inspired futures — better, best, and preferred. Here’s how I define them:
Better: More than you have at the present. What you currently have isn’t necessarily bad; it’s just less than what is possible.
Best: Even better than better. If we were to consider a fulfillment scale of one to ten, you’d be living a ten.
I recognize this beckons the question: what’s a ten?
I define a ten by John 10:10, “... I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Life in all its fullness. Until you can confidently describe your life experience in this way, you are experiencing less than what’s possible.
But my point is this: I believe you can experience the best possible future. And this future is a preferred future.
Preferred: The future you choose to create in partnership with God, not something forced on you. The future you prefer in alignment with God’s plans for your life. But it’s the future you want. Your will is involved.
Look — I don’t care how old you are. Whether you’re eighteen or ninety, want more! You can create a preferred future — but only if you want to.