A Delight yourself in the Lord moment

It was one of those life-defining moments. Come to think of it I had a lot of those lately. Let me go back a bit. I just finished do a script, budget, and production schedule for one of our pilot shows. This is going to be a good one. I have learned its kind of hard to do a budget in a foreign currency. Not only do you have to factor in the currency exchange, you have to adjust to the local labor rates. What surprised me about Dubai are that the rates are very similar to rates in Los Angeles as far as Film/Video production is concerned. Its kind of like learning a foreign language. But once I figured out the local rates the rest was like fill in the blanks. I’ve been doing this awhile now, and its fun and easy for me.

I walked across the bridge to the Marina walk. This is different from the beachwalk that I normally go on. The marina has tons of multi-million dollar yachts and many sidewalk cafes. I spotted a Johnny Rockets yesterday so I headed back there today. I enjoyed a great patty melt and listened to a couple of Charles Stanley sermons on podcast. I then decided to go on a walk after dinner down the marina. It was a very brisk walk near jog. I have a combination of worship songs plugged into a playlist. There is Lakewood choir, Phillips, Craig and Dean, and Michael W. Smith, about 6 hours of praise and worship music. So there were a lot of people on the walk. In the midst of all the high rises, the lights, and the water, the view was breathtaking. So there I am walking down the marina belting out praise songs to God. I toned it down whenever people came around me, but then I let fly again. I was at about the halfway point. I was up on the overpass over the marina, no one was around. I was singing some fast paced song from Lakewood and I just started crying. Not a sad cry, but a cry of rejoicing. I just had a moment with God, a very special moment. A moment where I felt all of his faithfulness, hope, joy and peace sweep over me like a flood. I had to stop just for a moment to soak it in, and then I just cried some more. For about 10 minutes or so. It was so fulfilling, so liberating. I always wondered about that Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” This was a ‘Delight yourself in the Lord’ moment. Then I realized…he really had given me the desires of my heart. His promise was true. It just didn’t play out the way I expected it to. For three years I prayed for the reconciliation of my family. I prayed “God, Im delighting myself in you, now give me what I want.” But he knew better. Isaiah 55: 8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God did give me the desires of my heart, he did answer my prayers. It just wasn’t in the way I was expecting him to do it. He knew better than me. For some strange reason he turned broken eggs in a beautiful omelette. I dearly hope and pray that my ex-wife can also find the same peace and joy in her life. I do pray for her and her husband often. Because the more joy they have, the better off my kids will be. I wish nothing but the best for her. I know that someday I will be reconciled with my children, my prayer now is that is sooner rather than later. I have to trust that God’s ways are better than my ways in this circumstance as well.

As for me…I feel like I’ve hit the lottery with Jennifer. She’s one in a billion…I’ve gone on and on about her before. But what makes this truly an act of God is that she thinks the world of me too. She’s thinks Im handsome, smart, she doesn’t think Im funny but Im still working on that. How she thinks and admires me really makes me think there’s divine intervention involved. Im very proud to have her on my arm. I get to be “that guy.” That is kind of fun for me.

So go ahead, Delight yourself in the Lord, but you have to be patient for God’s timing for the Desires of your heart part.