Your life is NOT a fairy tale

“Your life is not a fairy tale.” That’s what someone told me a while back. “You need to quit living in a fantasy world, because in the real world your life doesn’t work out like in the movies. Stop dreaming the big dreams. A relationship is one that takes hard work and if it isn’t working out, you try harder. Wes, your life is not a movie, it is not The Notebook.”

For a moment or two, this really got to me. Maybe I am just a dreamer that is out of touch with reality. Maybe I should just settle and not expect too much. Those relationships that seem so perfect are just a movie. A figment of someone’s great imagination. How could that ever happen to me?

Then it hit me, why would I just settle? Does God want us to settle on mediocrity? To just get by in life? Absolutely not! Psalm 37:4 says to “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

I fully expect to have a fairy tale romance. To sweep and be swept off of my feet. I refuse to settle. I refuse mediocrity. I want the very best of what God has to offer. I will not settle. I fully believe that when God is the absolute center of a relationship/marriage the “great” times will far outweigh the “good” times and the “bad” or “tough”” times. Of course it will take work, any human to human relationship does, but there will never be a feeling of “is this as good as it gets?”

Before I march out into the world and declare that God give me what I want, there is a prerequisite. You might have missed it, but it’s there. “Delight yourself in the Lord.” What does that mean exactly?

Well, in fairy tale terms, it means to be swept off your feet by God’s love. Before God can entrust you with the emotions and heart of one of his children he wants you to be fully sustainable by Him.

How can we ever be fully sustainable by God if he isn’t a part of our daily life? He is more than just an hour on Sunday’s. He is more than a wishing well. He is a father, a best friend and a constant companion.

A friend of mine once told me that the next girl he dates he wants to look them in the eye and say this: “I don’t need you in my life. I want you in my life. I am blessed to have you in my life, but I am fully sustainable by Christ alone.”

Scary proclamation, but that is the very definition of delighting yourself in the Lord.

Once upon a time...