For years I dreamed about living in the country. I wanted to be free from sprawl and traffic. I wanted my kids to be able to play outside in field and hills and trees, not streets and manicured yards.

When, finally, I was able to move outside of town to a small piece of property, I was delighted. We packed up our belongings, moved in, and happily went to sleep to the sounds of crickets chirping and frogs croaking.

But at about 3 a.m. that first night we also heard a sound we didn't expect: a rooster crowing outside our window. "Oh no," I thought to myself, "what have I done? I'm going to be up at 3 a.m. for the rest of my life!"

"Be careful what you wish for" is a commonly expressed caution that relates to my idealistic vision of country living. I could have easily noticed, before buying my new home, that there were roosters in the neighborhood. I wasn't interested in such details, as I was too enamored with the ideal in my mind. Sometimes, we can get so excited about a change in our lives that we don't do enough to prepare ourselves for the reality that it truly entails.

In today's first reading, the Israelites are grumbling about their living conditions after escaping from Egypt. They are hungry, and thirsty. "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?" they cry to Moses. "Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?"

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years. They had pined for release for generations after centuries of brutal oppression. And now that they're free, and hungry, they look back fondly on their days in Egypt. Be careful what you wish for, indeed.

The same process can happen to us in our Catholic faith. We may have believed at one time that practicing our faith meant that God would protect us from pain and suffering. We may have believed that we would be spared conflict and rejection in relationships. When these things happen, we might be tempted to think that following Jesus has done us no good. We grow hungry and thirsty just like everyone else.

Life is, for better or for worse, full of surprises. Some of them seem wonderful and some of them seem terrible. Getting our wishes fulfilled can turn out to be full of disappointment; and events that seem terrible at first can turn out to be full of blessings.

Lent reminds us that God does not in fact promise us exemption from pain and suffering. We don't get a free pass out of the human condition. If we feel that any difficulties we face are a departure from God's will, we will constantly resist and complain, just as the Israelites do.

"Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?," they ask Moses. Perhaps to learn this lesson - that faith in God means trusting God, even when things do not seem be going according to your plans. Faith means being open to a different plan, God's plan, rather than insisting that God work according to our plans.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.