In the original Star Trek Series, Spock is driven to return to Vulcan to take a wife, a woman named T’Pring who was promised to him from boyhood. When he arrives, he finds that she is not what he thought her to be. She wants a rival named Stonn so she cunningly arranges a plan to win Stonn, but Spock will have to kill his friend Captain Kirk. After apparently killing Kirk, Stonn gets the girl and Spock offers this sage advice we all as believers should take to heart.

Oh my, how true!

“After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but is often true.”

We see this so often in life. A child who absolutely has to have a certain toy for Christmas is seen losing all interest in days or even hours. A man who keeps looking for a better job to make him happy. A new house, a new addition, a new car, a great vacation; they can all have the same thing in common: the buildup was far more exciting than the actual reality.

This is why God does not always answer our prayers immediately. He is actually being kind to us. He is giving us time, like Spock, to see things for what they really are. Without that time we might have rushed in and regretted it. So the next time we find that we’ve been waiting a long time for God to give us something or someone, let us remember this kindness from God. He is allowing our eyes to be opened lest we learn the hard way, that “having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but is often true.”

Categories: Covetousness, Prayer, Uncategorized, Wisdom