C. S. Lewis once stated that, when we are offered the infinite joy that accompanies the promises of God, we are “like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” 

This has made a lasting impression on me, and I think about it regularly. 

Throughout my life, I have often had tightly held ideas of what my life should look like and consist of. I have frequently pursued goals without committing them to prayer, and in my self-reliance, I have failed to ask God for His opinion and wise guidance.

In response to the question “Do you have any regrets?” I sometimes hear people say, “No, I wouldn’t change a thing because everything I have done, good or bad, has made me the person I am today.” Although I understand the point they are making, I certainly have regrets. There are LOTS of things I would change if I could. Many times, I have thought, said, and done things I later regretted. Some of it was outright sin that, in contrition, I needed to ask God’s forgiveness for. 

What’s interesting about making choices is that God never forces His will upon us. While He desires that we seek Him and promises blessings for doing so, He gives us free will. In a sense, that’s what is particularly disconcerting because I can’t fully trust myself. Even though there are ways that seem right to us, our human wisdom, in light of our sin nature, is faulty at best. 

And while some of our choices and pursuits may not be inherently bad, they also might not be the best. This gives me pause and causes me to ask myself how many times have I settled for something less than what God has purposed and desired for me?

So, my prayer is that I will seek God’s leadership in all things, and that I will submit to His Lordship, so that I might be in perfect step with His will for my life and experience the infinitely better things that accompany trusting and obeying Him.

Father in Heaven, please help me not to settle for mud pies when You desire to give me a holiday at the sea. Don’t let me miss Your very best for me.