It was certainly one of the most challenging seasons of my life. I had just broken up with my fianc\u00e9e, only months away from the wedding day. The honeymoon had been booked. The wedding venue paid for. The invitations addressed. (Thankfully, not sent!) The relationship I had invested so much into was over.<\/p>\n
Even in high school, I longed for the day I would be married. In my twenties, I was confident the \u201csingle species\u201d was a dying breed. At least the 34-1 married-to-single ratio at the church I was attending convinced me it was so. And after college, my desire to be married grew even more when I realized I was the only person among my buddies who still didn\u2019t have a wife.<\/p>\n
When the engagement ended, I was 29 and found myself, once again, without a date and hopelessly single. (I can almost hear the sad violin music quietly playing in the background.)<\/p>\n
Nearly\u00a010 years later, I can look back and smile, because I know it was a turning point. After the breakup, God became more real to me than ever before. I began to see, truly for the first time, that His plan was best, even in this extended season of longing and waiting. It\u00a0was a hard season, waiting for the pain of a broken engagement to subside. I struggled to see how God was going to bring about good in my life. But through it all, even in the waiting, I learned that God was more than sufficient to satisfy my deepest longings.<\/p>\n
What are\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0waiting for? What do you desire that seems out of reach?\u00a0Maybe it\u2019s a spouse. Maybe it\u2019s a fulfilling career. Maybe it\u2019s healing from something holding you back. Whatever it may be, we are all<\/em> waiting for something. And that waiting is hard.<\/p>\n It’s also important. God has shown me just how valuable it is to give\u00a0over my desires to Him. When I don\u2019t, these longings gradually pull me away from Him. In those times of desiring anything or anyone\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0than my desire to trust God and follow\u00a0His<\/em>\u00a0ways, I will inevitably find myself in a never-ending quest for that which cannot truly satisfy. A well-known verse from\u00a0<\/em>St. Augustine\u2019s Confessions says:<\/p>\n \u201cYou have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As we develop more character and see circumstances as He does, something miraculous begins to happen. He begins to mold and shape our desires to be one and the same with His. This is the beautiful mystery behind Psalm 37:4<\/a>, which says, \u201cDelight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Following and pursuing God\u2019s plan, not our plan, is the only way to have the things which will satisfy our deepest desires. Amazing! It\u2019s not about getting what we want, but about becoming who God wants us to be.<\/p>\n