Monday, October 14, 2013

Expectations in the wrong things can hurt

I want to talk about something that shades our understanding of things.

It's a little thing caused expectation.

Definition wise, it's called prospects, especially of gain or success or eager anticipation.

Someone once wrote, "Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation."

In the game yesterday, the Saints-Patriots game, expectation caused (for example) great heartache. If someone had asked me three weeks ago, I would have said that if the Saints could split the two-game trip to Chicago and New England, I would be happy. Then the Saints (for example) beat Chicago, and suddenly my expectation level went up. I told my wife, Mary, that beating New England in New England would cause me to buy-in to this team and its overall chances.

All that was true until New England won with five seconds remaining. Once the Saints led 27-23 with just 2 1/2 minutes remaining, well, I expected a victory.

And it stung, didn't it? Why? Expectations.

But expectation doesn't have to be a bad thing. The Bible says, in fact, that's the state we should live in. Peter wrote, "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation."

The other side of expectation is that we can trust the outcome if we trust in the Lord. No expectation of an after-life will ever match what it truly will be like. The writer of 1 John says, "And all who have this great expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure."

To summarize, it seems to me that the way expectations harm us is more about what we're expecting than anything else. Putting our trust in things, (the Saints for example) is a dangerous thing. Putting our trust in people (like anyone including Drew Brees) is a dangerous thing. Putting our trust in places or money or possessions is a very, very dangerous thing.

Only in God can we be sure that our expectations will be met. Or in the case of Jesus, exceeded.

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