Great Expectations

The day had finally arrived. All my expectations for this moment of gift exchange, were very high. As the person opened it, everything inside me was giddy. Then shock. The response was not what I had expected. They put it aside and went to the next. I was crushed. Disappointment saturated my whole being. A dark moodiness set in that ruined the rest of the day.

All of us, at one time or another, have had some pretty high expectations about something or someone, and just as many of us have experienced disappointment with those expectations. That is because disappointment is the fruit of expectations.

To help us better understand, we need to look at and compare the words expectations and desires. Desires come from God’s desire for us. He desires us so much that He brought us into existence out of nothing and keeps us in existence. God desires that we have access to Him and can share in His divine life. Even when we sinned and turned away from Him, He desires us so much that He sends His Son to save us. As His images, He has placed within us a desire for happiness. All humanity desires happiness. He does this for He knows that only He is the fulfillment of all man’s desires. This fulfillment of desire brings joy.

Expectations are our desires cloaked in control. When we have expectations, we tend to develop the playing field and reduce the odds to a more personal advantageous outcome. Literally, we attempt to control how and when our desires will be fulfilled. Expectations tend to be biased towards our perceptions and preferences. Thus we become blinded to possibilities beyond our expected scope and thus limit God, because we are not open and attuned to God’s presence among us. The end result? Disappointment.

A great example of this we can find in the Bible. Israel had become the chosen people of God. He made a series of covenants with them over the centuries promising He would send a Messiah that would deliver them from bondage and bring them into great freedom and true peace. Over the centuries they began to add their human perspectives to what this promise would look like. Those perspectives became expectations. They expected a Messiah that was like King David, a man of power and military might delivering them from the bondage of Rome. When Jesus came meek and humble as the God/man, a carpenter from Nazareth, who spoke of the Reign of and Kingdom of God as something interior, Israel as a whole, did not recognize Him. John the Baptist captures this well when he says “I baptize you with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize….” (Jn. 1:29).

Expectations lead us down the rabbit holes of disappointment and blindness. Desires that God places within us lead to joy and peace. Which do you choose?


For Reflection:
Do some self examining. Do you see times when you have been filled with expectations? With desires? What are the differences? Do you want to be filled with peace and joy or disappointment?

Prayer: O God, I beg You to change my expectations into Your desires. Fill me with Your joy.


(Blogged December 15, 2023)
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