The lyric above is from a song by Phil Keaggy, and describes a powerful truth. En route to 'there,' wherever 'there' is, there are bound to come times that can best be described as disappointing.

The other day, as I was walking past the donut shop, [I was fasting and praying], I saw a grandma with two grandchildren approach. The kids were giddy with excitement, yelling out loud which kind of treat they were going to get. As they got to the door, grandma said, "Oh no, it's closed."

The kind of tears I heard were different than the tears you hear when a child gets hurt. It was sort of more mature, because it had to do with expectation. They were old enough to have a distinct desire that they expected to be fulfilled. When it didn't happened, they felt that something was incomplete--wrong.

Disappointments are a reality and how we handle them has a lot to do with how prepared we will be to inherit what the Lord has for us. Some folks just shrug and say, "I don't care. It really didn't matter anyway." Still others vow to not get disappointed again and so they stop expecting. How are we to handle these things?

Fatalism is a belief that everything is pre-ordained, and that when things don't happen as we prefer, then we just chalk it up to 'fate.' I know a lot of Christian fatalists. Is this how we are to handle disappointments; to view God as some sort of cruel script writer whose plot line has the actor get all excited only to be crushed by disappointment in the end?

Is there another healthier way to handle these inevitable let downs?

As we get into the Word this morning, my hope is that the Lord, by His Spirit, will bring His perspective to our changes in plans. Somehow I have always felt that if the Lord knows what I am in the middle of, then that is enough, because I know and believe that He cares for me. It matters to Him that we get disappointed.

'Getting there' means that we have to have a realistic, healthy, Bible based set of expectations that inform our feelings. Perhaps today can be one step toward the acquisition of just such expectations. Amen?

Pastor Jim
August 6, 2006