I love fireworks. Have ever since I was a kid. There's something about explosives. The smell of the imported cardboard and gunpowder. The crude graphics and the wild adjectives used to describe them in titles that were obviously slapped on with tongue in cheek sarcasm. Pyro Power, Wild Weasel, Inferno Explosion, Twitter Glitter, Monsters, Mini Monsters, Mega Monsters, Massive Monsters, you get the idea... The thing is that you could get these things for pennies when I was little and now I watch with strange fascination as people shell out 2, 4, or 6 hundred bucks for this stuff. I make a lousy salesman because I want to grab them by both ears, make forced eye contact, and say, "Are you SURE you want to spend five hundred bucks on a box of twitter glitters and wild weasels???" But they do. So I give em what they want. I watched as a buyer crossed the four-lane road in front of the stand to shoot his 'stuff' off in the parking lot of an adjacent apartment complex. His money became my show. I watched, enjoyed, and smiled wide eyed toward the sky at the show. All for free. But I really didn't care. It wasn't my desire to possess the product or participate in its ignition and display. I watched with indifference. But he was passionate and pleased with the process that he was into, no matter what it cost. There was joy in that. Here's where I'm going with this. Desire is a gift.
Someone once said that the two greatest tragedies in life are not getting what you want and getting what you want. One is desire without relief and the other is lethargic indifference, which is the price of the relief of desire. There's a powerful motivation in desire that either produces life improving passion or destructive criminal behavior. It all depends on the outlet. Men fantasize about the woman they can never possess. They might wake up and realize that their own wife is worth loving far beyond what they can see, or they may become cold to their spouse. In extreme cases they may act out an act of criminal passion. Women dream about the product they can't afford. They may learn to appreciate what they do have or may become angry at the perceived inferiority of what they do have and give it away hoping to justify their upcoming purchase. In extreme cases they get caught on hidden cameras stuffing Hermes scarves into oversized purses. Children imagine lands and wonders they can't see with their eyes. They simply use cardboard boxes, couch cushions, and towels to transform their room into what they dream. We want everything to be better than it is because our desires are an appetite that can never be satisfied. But desire is not an enemy to be killed. It cannot die. It can only move and when it does it moves you too. Desire is a gift to be guided in the right direction. The Psalm says, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." This is not that he takes away your ability to want. He uses it to move you. Thank God for the gift of desire. I will learn to see it as a force that can move me to where I want to be. Closer to the heart of God.