You Get One Wish

Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people? 1 Kings 3:9

I imagine that everyone played this game as a kid – If you got one wish, what would it be? I recall that among my friends, our answers didn’t vary all that much. There was the ever-present wish for infinite wishes. Some wished for 10 million dollars. Others wished for something more perpetual, like a press that minted our own money. We almost all wished for something material that we felt would guarantee us the good life. None of us wished for world peace or a solution to homelessness and hunger. No, if we had one wish, we were going to spend it on getting what we thought would make us happy.

If, as adults, my friends and I played the same game, I’m not sure our answers would be all that different. We may try to provide more mature responses, but if you audited our lives, you’d be able to see what we pursue in life. And, for most of us, you’d still see that we spend most of our time and energies pursuing our childhood wishes – seeking material blessings that we think will provide us with the good life. We may say that money can’t buy happiness, but our behavior reveals that we spend a lot of time trying to do just that.

You get one wish. This is what God said to King Solomon in today’s passage. God said, “Ask what I shall give you (1 Kings 3:5).” In response, Solomon didn’t ask for personal success or riches. Rather, he asked God to give him the wisdom to rule his people. Pleased that Solomon didn’t ask for riches or success, God granted Solomon wisdom but then also promised that he’d become rich and successful. Solomon’s answer revealed that he cared more about his people than he did about himself. In seeking a blessing for others, he received a blessing himself.

If addiction meant being enslaved to my desires, then recovery has meant abandoning my appetite to seek the good of those around me. This isn’t natural, but God promises that I find life, joy, and peace, not in pursuing the material wealth that I think will make me happy. Rather, I find the good life by abandoning myself to serve those God has put in my life. The lesson of Solomon isn’t about wishes, but rather it’s about how I spend the time and energy God has given me. Paradoxically, I find the good life, not in seeking it for myself, but in seeking it for others.