The first time I walked through the house, all I saw were the orange counter tops. It felt like I had stepped back in time. Disappointment radiated through my spirit. I knew this was going to be hard but I had fooled myself into thinking God would give me a shiny new house that looked just as I had imagined it. After all, I was forfeiting a lot to follow God’s call.
My husband and I had given up our dream house eight years earlier so that he could go to seminary and become an ordained pastor. Now, we were moving into our first parsonage and I had expected something different. I’ve heard it said that expectations are resentments waiting to happen and that was certainly how I was feeling in that moment.
The meaning of the word expectation means to consider something reasonable or probable, even certain. The thing is while it may be reasonable to expect something, that does not make it true. That is exactly why having expectations can lead us to disappointment, frustration and resentment. We often find ourselves in that place of expecting something, being sure that God is going to answer us in the way we want.
A familiar passage that many of us read:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)
We read this passage and automatically expect it to mean that we will get what we want, right?
On closer inspection, we can realize that this passage does not say you’ll get what you want when you want it. In context, the Lord gave these words to Jeremiah for the Israelites who had been exiled to Babylon. In the verses right before this, God told them to get comfortable in this new place. God lets them know they are going to be there awhile. In fact, through Jeremiah God told them they are to be there for 70 years! That’s a pretty long time to be put in exile and I’m sure that is not what they were expecting. And that is why this verse is so important. God wanted them to know that while they were going to be there for a time, it would not be forever and that they could have hope and trust in God’s plan for them.
As I walked through the house that day, I knew that I would be there for at least a short while. Yes, I was initially disappointed but God quickly reminded me that the plans for our future were good, and I could trust in that.
I have needed that reminder over and over.
There are so many times in life that we expect one thing and get something else, and that something else is often far better than we could ever imagine or hope for.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21
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