Great Expectations

Expectations are kind of a funny concept, and yet we generally experience hundreds of moments of expectation every day. We wake up daily “expecting” certain things, expecting that parts of our day will turn out in a certain manner. We expect a chair to hold us. We expect our stomach to growl if we don’t eat, and we expect it to be satisfied if we do. We expect to get certain things done. We expect to get up, go to class, go to work, etc.

This is something that I have been thinking about a lot—especially since my year of being an RA. While one could probably come up with an extensive philosophy on expectations, I just have two thoughts for now.

#1. If our expectations are grounded in the world and in mankind, we will be disappointed and often tempted to sin. Often we find ourselves placing our expectations in others—expecting them to react or behave a certain way, to do a certain thing, or to be at a certain place. The only problem with this is that others are fallible and will disappoint. In placing our expectations in others, we place them in sinful people who will indeed fail us. And when we are disappointed and our expectations are not met, this will often in turn lead us to a sinful response… perhaps of impatience, selfishness, pride, anger, worry, etc. So, we must guard our expectations and be ready to respond to every situation in a way that places confidence in God and not in man.

#2. If our expectations are grounded in God and His Word, we will not be disappointed. God is unchanging, does not disappoint, and does not fail. We can wake up every day counting on Him to be faithful and to follow through with all that He has promised. Can you believe all that we have to rejoice in? We have been brought from a place where the only things that we could truly expect were judgment and hell. Now, we wake up daily and we can have great expectations of God’s grace, His goodness, His forgiveness, His love, His mercy, and His faithfulness to name a few. We get to wake up every day expecting grace from the God of the universe… stop and think of that and see if you can wrap your mind around it. I expect that you probably can’t.