WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

 On any given day I can trip over a flat surface. I'm talented like that.

Yesterday, I recounted my hiking expedition and the many times I stumbled. The ground just wasn't where I expected it to be. Or, something unexpected was in my way.

So many troubles arise from our unmet expectations.

We quit relationships because we feel others should have done more to help us. We quit on our dreams because we feel the doors should have opened to us long ago. We quit hoping because we have been disappointed. We quit living because we are afraid of the risk. We quit being grateful because someone else seems to have more. We quit moving forward because the path isn't easy. Stumbling through life because we expect a sidewalk and what we have is a mountain pass.

Just because you belong to a church, doesn't mean you won't have to face some things alone. Just because the perfect opportunity hasn't presented itself, doesn't mean you have been forgotten. Perhaps our "problems" aren't really with the people and situations that surround us. Maybe, just maybe, God didn't put them in our lives to prop us up.

Could it be that we have expected more of what is outside of us, than that which is within?

Why do we expect what we expect?


It is a worthy examination, given the fact that misguided expectations are systematic stumbling blocks.

Jesus said, that loving those that love you in return is not noteworthy. Even unbelievers can handle that exchange. It is loving those that cannot do anything in return that really counts.

Therefore, loving without expectation is the reflecting mirror in which we should check ourselves.

On our hike yesterday, I took a picture of this flower growing from the rock mountainside. The simple image of life bursting from such an unexpected place, spoke to me. There is no soil, no shade to harbor this little flower. And yet it blooms.

How many unmet expectations have ultimately been excuses for us not to thrive?

"I need this support structure...then I can do it."
"I need these resources...then I will prosper."
"I need guarantees...then I will try it."


What we really need are lower external expectations and less internal excuses.  If we wait till we have everything we think we need to flourish, we will hold back our harvest for eternity.