One of the hard parts about my maturing has been learning to let go of expectations.
The hardest part about learning this is that most of the things out there that teach it are not Christian things. Zen Buddhism, belief in the yen and the yang and were all just parts of the great power source and when we die we returned to it and come back as something different. I don't believe in any of that stuff. In fact I think it's wrong! I am a Christian and I believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to get to God and that he is Lord of all.
But what I've learned is that my expectations tend to get me into trouble. Get a picture in my head of the way things should be and when they don't turn out that way my emotions kick in. I used to get angry and upset. Now I just get disappointed and turn away.
Over the years I would always in anger say that I would just will have any expectations of that well never be disappointed! My wife and friends would say no you should have some expectations. You should just you know be satisfied and then make efforts to make things different the next time. All very frustrating!
But as I get older and I see my children now adults having expectations and being disappointed in having to adjust their sales to catch a new breeze that takes them in a direction they did not expect to go at all I'm finding myself telling them more and more don't invest so much in your expectations but we've together what's happening into a beautiful thing.
For a while I resisted sharing that with people because I don't want them thinking that I'm a Buddhist or something. I am not! When I read the Bible I see people that had expectations. Peter expected to be a fisherman and to do that the rest of his life. Jesus stepped into his world and said you will be a fisherman but it'll be a different kind I'll make you a fisher of men. Eddie did!
The guy that was possessed with demons that lived at the graveyard and broke every chain put on him probably expected to continue doing that until he died. He probably had no expectation of ever seeing family or friends again or returning to the land of his birth. But when Jesus cast out the demons that were inside him a new picture emerged. And he didn't even get to do that! He wanted to follow Jesus but Jesus said no go back to your family and tell them about me.
The soldier who had a dying servant. The mother with the dead daughter and son. Martha and Mary with their dead brother Lazarus. The guy who begged because when the water stirred nobody ever was there to help them get in to get the miracle of healing. All of them had expectations of life just being what they saw. And Jesus came and changed that whole picture in their head. Give them a new lens to see through. Launched them in a different direction.
I hope that when I share with people that they should let go of their expectations and focus more on weaving things together toward their goals that they understand what I'm saying. I hope.