I’ve never blogged before so I’m not sure how this is meant to go, but I am still on holiday (just) so in theory I have the time and, in a remarkable coincidence, I also have something rattling in my brain that seems worthy of sharing.

A few weeks ago we went to New Wine and someone there was talking about an interview that Rick Warren gave. He was talking about the year when his book sold millions and was an amazing success, but at the same time his wife got cancer and was not miraculously healed, despite being prayed for. He said that he no longer thought of life as being good times and then bad times, in a sort of hilly road towards old age, but more as two rail tracks – one being good things and the other bad things, both happening at the same time. It is our choice and challenge to not focus on more of those rails to the exclusion of the other.

He also said that he thought that our lives were a series of problems: “either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one” he said cheerfully. God uses these problems to change us to be more like Jesus – “God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy”, more interested in developing your character than making you comfortable.

It made me think about my perspective on the events of each day. When things are frustrating, is this an opportunity for me to learn patience?

It also made me think about what Jesus promises in John 16, where he says that whatever we ask the Father in his name we shall receive. When we ask in Jesus name, it means asking in his character, asking as if we were Jesus. So we will get what we ask for if it is what Jesus would ask for us. What would Jesus want us to ask for? In the context of John he has just been talking about disciples loving one another, so that is one thing straight off. And if a disciple is meant to become like his master, then we should not just be asking for love, but compassion, the ability to forgive and everything else that Jesus showed us.

And that made me reflect on my prayers – how often do I pray for God to change me, and how often to I ask God to change my circumstances? I am certainly not saying that we should not ask God to intervene in the situations we find ourselves in, and it is true that he will answer some of those prayers in his grace. But I find myself thinking that I should also be talking to God and praying for help changing me inside, so that I become more like Jesus quicker rather than more comfortable.