One day last semester, my roommate came back from a job interview. When I asked her how it went she responded with, "High hopes, low expectations". If I'm being honest, I didn't understand what that meant right away. It almost sounded like a contradicting statement. How could you have high hopes while at the same time having low expectations? Aren't hopes and expectations one in the same? After noodling these four words in my head for some time, I finally realized what my roommate was meaning when she said them.
Hopes are not guaranteed, while expectations result in assuming some fulfillment of that idea.
I can hope that I will receive an A on my paper, but at the same time don't have the expectation that an A is what I will get. That way, when my professor gives me a B I will be disappointed maybe but it won't be crushing because I did not assume I would receive an A.
Understanding this motto has made me realize how much power I have given to expectations in my life.
I had expectations of friends and when they didn't meet them I was crushed.
I had expectations of presents on Christmas Day or my birthday, and when I didn't receive some of them I became immediately ungrateful for the things I did receive.
I had expectations of how well I should be in my sports or in my school work, and when I didn't meet the unrealistically high goals I had set for myself I viewed myself as a failure.
The deepest bitterness in my past was a direct result of unmet expectations.
I had this image in my mind of how things were going to go, how people around me were going to act, how my life would turn out. And when none of those expectations were fulfilled, anger and resentment and bitterness filled me until I hardly recognized myself.
I have given expectations too much power over me. Satan has had a foothold in my mind through feeding me assumptions in how my life on my terms should go. But by surrendering those expectations to the feet of Jesus, there is so much freedom!
With Jesus carrying those burdens for me, I can live in hopefulness and refuse to become bitter when something doesn't go my way. I no longer have to live in constant disappointment when my heart is trusting in God's perfect plan for me.
I read a quote recently that said, "Expectations are premeditated resentment."
When we nail our expectations to the cross of Christ, we don't have to carry around a burden of resentment with us. We can have the freedom to be thankful for unexpected blessings.
Coming from someone who was ruled by expectation for far too long, let me tell you... it is freeing to finally surrender plans for how my life will turn out to the One whose plan is so much better than mine.
