The Magic Lamp

Just believe. That’s all I need for the magic to happen. Those words from the great encouragers sounded so good when I was a kid. Were they right?
If a genie could grant one wish, what would it be?
“Frankie,” Grampa said, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
“A farmer,” I said, because Grampa was a farmer and I wanted to be like him.
Daddy asked the same question, and I said, “A preacher,” because I wanted to be like him.
I dreamed of all the things I could be—a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist. I could be anything I wanted to be. I might be any one of them, but I couldn’t be all of them.
Who did I want to be?
What did my lamp have to offer?
My lamp was different from what others had.
Some of my school teachers wanted me to pursue their specialties—math, science, or music. They shared their ideas of who I could become, adding to my dreams. Nobody ever suggested I should be a writer or speaker. Obviously, I had no talent there.
I had to face reality: there was no genie.
When I graduated from high school, I dreamed of rubbing a magic lamp. A genie would appear and grant my dream of success. Dreaming didn’t help. I had to wake up and face the real world. Without money or a genie, I could only work, hope, and pray that my life would amount to something.
Maybe God could be my genie.
I read where God would give me the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4). How could I make those words come true for me—rub my Bible? No, I needed to “delight myself in the Lord.” What did that mean? My translation: you can have whatever you want as long as you only want what God wants.
What if God were to say, “Frankie, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
I would answer, “You know better than I do. I just want to be like you.”
All my old dreams can stay bottled up.
I’ve found a better deal. My magic lamp is to follow God’s direction, wherever he wants to take me. Doing that will give me a different kind of success, which will be better than my greatest wishes.
Your word is a lamp to keep my feet from stumbling, a light that shines before me to show the way you want me to go. — Psalm 119:105