I want to circle back and say one more thing about expectations. I know, you are thinking, “Dude, move on, you blogged about that, like, 5 weeks in a row recently.” I know. But this is a forum where I can share where God is working on me. And this has been a big one for me. I don’t even think I got it down perfectly, because the Lord is still graciously teaching me.
When the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians, he was in a jail cell. A jail cell, as in: a prison cell, as in incarcerated, confined, chained, the big house… as in no freedom, restricted, locked away from society at large. Why am I belaboring the point…? Because when you read Philippians, Paul seems so unbelievably joyful and content! You would think he wrote it from Disney World, but he wrote it from a jail cell (did I mention that?).
So where is the joy? It certainly wasn’t from his circumstances… but neither was it from wrong expectations. We often get depressed, frustrated, or angry because we have unbiblical expectations.
- If only my spouse were a better…
- My kids had better be…
- My job HAS to start getting better…
- My doctor better say…
- I should be seeing a better financial situation this year…
When we start laying out un-biblical expectations, we will lose our joy in a hurry. If there is something I had to learn in 2011, and am still learning in 2012, it was to not get my hopes up in my own expectations. Too often I did, and too often I became depressed, frustrated, AND angry. Things I was expecting to happen, didn’t. And things I was almost certain would not happen, did. And the Lord reminded me who is really in control here.
Did Paul have any expectations? He could have said, "I expect to get out of jail, I expect one of the churches to bail me out or break me out, I expect the Lord to rescue me..." He didn't have any of those expectations, really he had just one: it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. (Philippians 1:20)
I want to honor Christ. In my life, by my death. That’s really all I should be looking towards.
That’s one thing that Paul is saying in this verse. We are not going to meet the Lord and say, “I wasted my life on You?! I gave my years on earth to telling people about You?!”
And I will not be ashamed. I will not look back on my life and say “Jesus disappointed me.” I will not look back on my ministry and say, “Jesus wasn’t enough.”
My expectation is that I will cross over to death and rejoice at this glorious truth: Jesus is worthy. Of everything I had, everything I did, every heartache, every trial. Every day that this was all uphill… He is more than worthy. And I will not be ashamed.
That is my expectation. Too much of this life disappoints. Jesus will not.
p.s. - I promise this is the last time I talk about expectations (until the next time)