Monday, April 2, 2012

expectations, not so great

it is good that we remember palm sunday. the day Jesus entered jerusalem riding on a humble work animal. it is good that we remember the crowds that lined the street leading to the gate of the city, hands waving, voices singing "hosanna", and hearts filled with so many expectations - the king has come, the romans be gone, we will return to the splendor of the days of solomon and once again be a proud nation. it is good we remember those crowds since we are so much like them, with our expectations, our hands waiting to be filled, our voices crying "Lord, Lord", and our hearts filled with so many wants we expect to be satisfied.

only a few days later, those crowds that welcomed Jesus as he rode into jerusalem, were now singing a different song, "crucify him", because they had been disappointed, as the king was not what they expected. after all the preacher men said their expectations are what the scriptures promised. again we are confronted with how much we are like the people in those crowds, how quickly we turn when our expectations aren't met, when we feel disappointed because it didn't go as we expected it should. how quick we are to change our song from "Lord, Lord" to "why God, why" in an accusatory tone, hearts filled with self-righteous indignation as to why our genie in the sky did not meet our expectations. after all that's what the preacher men said the scriptures promised!

God isn't the only one we turn on when our expectations aren't met. how many expectations we have of other people: our parents, our partners, our children, our teachers, our friends. a mother has a son, the apple of her eye. she expects him to become a doctor and provide her with the "good life". its a beautiful dream - her beautiful expectation, only he wants to follow a different, albeit less lucrative, career path and the apple turns out to be "rotten" and is cask off. on the other hand, a child expects her parents to meet, and exceed, all her expectations of what a perfect parent is suppose to be. how disappointed she is when her expectations are not fully met, when it turns out her parents aren't gods but just frail human beings like herself.

its so easy to turn on those who do not meet our expectations, we do it all the time and even feel "righteous" in our disappointment because we buy into the idea that God and other people exist to meet our expectations. it's interesting how we often do not live up to the expectations others have of us, but that doesn't bother us nearly so much, if at all. we shrug our shoulders and say "hey i don't exist to live up to your standard", all the while still expecting others to live up to ours.

that's the problem with expectations, they are projections of our desire, which may be good or bad but are not beholden on another person. expectations always set us up for disappointment, and where is the wisdom in doing that?

this is why God has no expectations of us. God knows us too well to have any expectations of us, and so sent us His Son to show us a better way, and give us the grace to follow it. if we lay aside our expectations we can be filled with His inspirations, then our lives will be transformed beyond our expectations.

© 2012 Halley Low

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