Animation: Ring and/or Ruby Slippers and/or a Ladder

“Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” (James and John…according to Mark)

How many times have we said this to God? “Lord, we want you to do whatever we ask!”

We humans are creatures that want our way. We want what we want and we generally want it “now.” We like to be independent. We are self-assured. And we are ambitious.

And ambition is a squirrelly thing. It means that if someone won’t give us our way, we will strive to get whatever we want on our own, because we believe we can, and we believe we should have it.

This is particularly true here in the west. In fact, Burger King may as well have written their slogan to represent this kind of rugged individualism that pervades our culture. “Have it YOUR way,” they said. …