What Do You Want?

In episode 14 of the Next Right Thing podcast, Emily Freeman gently asked the listener, “What do you want?”

She then pointed out that Jesus didn’t ask the blind man what he thought he needed, or why he was sick, or what other people wanted for him. He said directly to the blind man, “What do you want?” The blind man answered concisely, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.” (Reference: Mark 10:46-52)

Today I’d like to ask you the same question – what do you want?

Do you want to spend more time with your loved ones? Do you want to go on a vacation? Do you want to have a clean home?

Emily Freeman also says that many times, the things we think we don’t want, we’re actually doing because they’ll lead us to what we do want. For example, we might not want to go to work in the morning or to spend time tagging used clothes for a consignment sale, but we do want to help provide for our families. We might not want to go through our possessions and purge a bunch of things, but we do want to be able to welcome company in without embarrassment.

Often we have to go through what we don’t want in order to make it to what we do want.

What do you want? Isn’t it a freeing, liberating question, to think about what we want – not just what we need, or what other people want us to do, or what is required, but what do we really want?

I love that we live in a time and a place where we get to choose, don’t you?! Generations ago, women spent all day cooking, plucking feathers from chickens, gardening, and helping their husbands with the farming and home repairs because if they didn’t, their family wouldn’t survive.

And maybe plucking chickens, cooking, and gardening sounds amazing to you, and if so, that’s great! (I like those things too.) But isn’t it nice that you get to pick? That you don’t have to choose that if you don’t want to?

So, what do you want? In the depths of your soul, what do you long for? Eternity in Heaven? More time with your kids? An organized home? To paint? To write? To run a 5k? Whatever it is you want, determine what you need to do to get there.

It’s not too late.

As long as what you want is God-honoring, work towards that.

We live in a time when lessons for nearly any topic can be found for free, when information is literally at our fingertips, when travel anywhere in the world is completely do-able, and when so many of our daily tasks such as laundry, dishes, heating and cooling, and water are automated and only require the push of a button. There’s no reason we can’t go after something we want.

You DO have 15 minutes a day:

Even if you’re covered up with to-do’s, take a look at your priorities and schedule, and see where you can carve out 15 minutes a day to work towards something you really want.

Want to write a book? If you can type at an average speed, you can type about 500 words in 15 minutes. A book is less than 50,000 words. That means, if you only write for 15 minutes a day, you’d have a complete first draft in 100 days, or less than 4 months.

If you want to learn how to speak another language, spend 15 minutes watching instructional videos on YouTube. In 15 minutes, you can learn three new words, plus practice the words you’d learned on previous nights – that’s 90 new words in one month or over 1,000 words in a year!

You may be able to dedicate more time as you get the hang of it, but even just 15 minutes as many days as possible really adds up!

If you don’t know what you want:

If you need help knowing what you want, consider what you loved doing as a child. Did you love to draw, sing, play an instrument, get your hands in the dirt, or take care of stray animals? Maybe you need to buy nice paper and pencils, pull out your sheet music, plant a small garden, or volunteer at an animal shelter.

Another – probably the best – way to know what you want is to spend more time in God’s word. When Your desire is to please Him and to live for Him, Your desires will align with His will for Your life.

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4, NKJV

What do you want? To spend your spare moments staring at a bright screen or to shine for Jesus?

I fail daily, but still, I want to shine.

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.” Philippians 2:14-16, NKJV (emphasis mine)

Other articles you may enjoy:

• 7 Simple Ways to Care for Yourself When Life Feels Chaotic
• How to Care for Yourself Without Being Selfish
• 8 Books that Will Help You Break Free from a Too-Busy Schedule
• Resting when the To-Do List isn’t Complete
• Know What You Want: Episode 14 of The Next Right Thing podcast

Friend, what’s something you want that you can work towards obtaining? Share in the comments!