On November 16 and 17, 1968, the Rolling Stones recorded the song "You Can't Always Get What You Want" at the Olympic recording studios in London. The hook in the lyrics is the phrase: You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes, you get what you need. The phrase may derive from a chance encounter in a drug store in Excelsior, MN, when the Rolling Stones were in the Twin Cities to play a concert at the old Danceland hall on Lake Minnetonka. Regardless of its origins, I am always reminded of that lyric when I think about today's Gospel (Lk 11: 5-13) which seems to say that God the Father will give us what we seek. "Ask and you will receive," Jesus says. "Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Really?? We all know that at some level the idea that God will give us what we want isn't true. As Abraham Lincoln noted so poignantly in his Second Inaugural Address (etched in stone inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.), both sides prayed to the same God for victory in the Civil War, but only one side could win. Ditto in World War I and World War II. As the Stones sing, "you can't always get what you want." So, if that is true, what is going on in today's Gospel, and what's the point of asking for something from God? At the end of the day it all comes down to faith. We know God won't necessarily answer our prayers in the way we seek. We've had that happen often. But we also know that God loves us, hears our prayers, is impacted by our prayers, and wants what is best for us. We know as well that asking, seeking and knocking is good for us, because it reminds us who is in charge. It builds up our relationship with the Divine. It is a counterweight to our arrogance, ego and narcissism. In faith we accept that the way God answers our prayers in the way that is truly best for us, even though with our human eyes that does not seem to be the case. And even we limited humans see that sometimes, sometimes "we get what we need."