How many of us are suffering from Denied Expectations? I for one had it all worked out on how this would look in the final chapters. It does not look anything like I thought it would.
Margaret Mitchell (Gone With The Wind) has a humanist answer to this age old dilemma,
“Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.”
We become wrongly convinced our crystal ball tells no lies. And then we discover we are not looking at a crystal ball, but instead the replay of a self made movie. We begin reading fairy tales as a child and continue through our adulthood with the fantasies spun by the likes of Louisa Mae Alcott, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens and become focused upon the happily ever afters. Somehow we became convinced we are the authors of our story instead of merely playing the leading character.
And then life happens, and we discover the ending we envisioned will not be happening. Life gets in the way with deaths, financial reversals, divorces, illness, . . . And our story book ending becomes a distorted version of our great expectations. To put it bluntly life's dreams can become today's nightmare in the blink of an eye.
As I was reading in Isaiah this morning, I came across the passage,
"Be careful, keep calm, and don't be afraid.
Do not loose heart."
Isaiah 7:4
Though this may not look the way we dreamed--God is in the business of redemption. He has our backs. He is not surprised by the way things have turned out. At this stage of the game, it is all about trust--who do we trust? So approach today with care, keep your wits about you, and fear not. Do not become discouraged. His plans are not our plans. And the denied expectations may lead to the most beautiful of redemption's-if we only trust Him.
"If you do not stand firm in your faith,
you will not stand at all."
Isaiah 7:9
The thing is ... life itself is expectations. Some might call it hope. A baby is born ... we all hope he is OK and healthy and will have a good life. He grows up ... we hope he'll do well at nursery, school, college, university. He gets a job ... and we hope with him. He gets married ... that in itself is a symbol of hope and expectations that the marriage will be happy and will last an eternity. And so on it goes.
ReplyDeleteGod gave us hope because without it there's really no point in going on. No matter how bad our situation is now, and how low we feel; without hope there's nothing more to keep us going.
And as you say, with hope, and expectations, we should have trust that He cares enough to see us through our darkest difficulties.
God bless you, Lulu. Your last few posts have been beyond expectation. Just excellent.
I have been pondering tomorrow's post, Victor, and you have inspired me with your words on hope. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Friend!
By the way--the last few posts have all come from inspiration found while reading Isaiah--God's continuing provision.