So maybe you failed a test, maybe the outcome of a situation was far different than what you thought it ought to be, maybe you got in a fight with your friend, maybe the plans you’d been looking forward to for weeks got cancelled or changed last minute, maybe someone isn’t treating you the way you think you deserve, or maybe you haven’t lived up to the standards you’ve place on yourself. Whatever the cause may be, disappointment hurts.
According to Google, the definition of disappointment is “the feeling of sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one's hopes or expectations”.
And to be frank, it sucks.
Disappointment has a way of distorting your view of the world around you. It makes you think things like, “If I’d only done…” or “I wish I could go back and say…”. And worst of all, a lot of times it causes you to begin to question your worth and whether or not God knows what He’s doing.
We tend to plan out our lives to the best of our knowledge of what we think will fulfill us. We search from person to person, thing to thing, experience to experience, just trying to find lasting hope.
But the world was never meant to satisfy us.
It’s time for us to place our hope is something greater than ourselves, greater than the people around us, greater than any experience, any relationship, any job, any grade, or any thing.
It’s time for us to place our hope in Heaven, knowing that the best is yet to come and recognizing that there’s nothing on this earth that will fill the void that only a personal relationship with Jesus can fill. 1 Corinthians 13:9-10, 12 says “For we know in part…but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
One day, as believers in Jesus Christ, we will go home to be with our Father. Our entire being will sing praises to the Name above all other names.
But until then, we must set our eyes on things from above, knowing that we are fully known and fully loved by the One who died to know us and give us life. Things like seeing the needs of others, loving people well, and serving others with abundant joy in our hearts. Things like having a positive attitude when the last thing we want to be doing is taking out the trash AGAIN, studying for a physics test AGAIN, or being patient when things don’t go our way AGAIN.
Our God is a better Author and the story He has written for our lives is far more beautiful than we could ever imagine for ourselves. So trust in His perfect timing and endless love, knowing that He is so very capable of handling the control that we chose to give Him when we became a Christian.
It’s so important to remember that our life on earth is so very fleeting and we are only given a limited number of days here. Yes, life is hard. Yes, the pain of disappointment is real. But I just want to encourage you to not sit in self-pity and chose to live a life of joy, redirecting your thoughts to the Name above all names and the incomparable joy that awaits.
