what do you want

Nov 13, 2022

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Here’s a Monday morning question which is also a pretty positive kick-start for every day.

Jesus asks the blind man: “What do you want me to do for you?”

The question reminds me of the 1996 Spice Girls hit with its repetitive lyric: tell me what you want what you really really want…

Perhaps my problem as I begin a new day, a new week, is that I don’t know what I really want.

We might dream of the moment when a magician appears offering us three wishes and we fantasise about what we might ask for. But let’s remember that in magic what appears to happen doesn’t really happen. The woman doesn’t really get sawn in half and the rabbit is not created from nowhere.

Jesus is God-with-you, able to work miracles in you and for you.

Miracles always happen – visible at times only to the trained eye and heart. Miracles are often more subtle than magic gimmicks, and much more finely tuned to and timed for the needs of individuals and communities rather than (like magic) for the fleeting entertainment of an easily impressed and not-too-curious audience.

When Jesus asks you this morning: “what do you want me to do for you?” he is inviting you to lay your heart, your life, your need open before him.

Jesus is offering your heart’s desire, gazing directly at you and asking: What is it you want me to do for you,,, just name it … I will do it.

How do you respond?

I can try to think about what I want, what I think i need…

…or I can ask Jesus to reveal to me my heart’s desire, what it is that I really really want.

Let’s try that prayer today.

 

5 Comments

  1. Magic! Really really good! Have a great week Father!

    Reply
  2. Miracles always happen …only to those trained eyes and mind.
    grateful everyday for the blessings of family and friends that loves me unconditionally..
    Have a blessed weekend Fr. John.
    Rega

    Reply
  3. Right on. We seriously muddle up our wants and needs unable to turn these inside out to notice the eagerness of God-with-us. I’m reminded of this from C S Lewis:
    ‘Yes at present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of the morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get in…’ from ‘The Weight of Glory.’

    Reply
  4. Fantastic words as always John – and I am sure that I will spend much of my day asking “what it is that I really really want” – which I think is the point of the post.

    Reply
  5. After reading the reflection yesterday and thinking about miracles in our lives we seemed to have a day of miracles happening for us . It was such a reminder how close Jesus is to us especially in the storms of our lives and how he works through others.

    Reply

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