Disappointment
Have you ever been disappointed by the actions of another? Sure you have, everyone, at some time or another has been disappointed by what someone else has done. Have you ever been the one who has disappointed someone else? I’m sure that I have. I’m not happy with that fact, but I’m sure that it’s happened.
In just very casual relationships, I’ve come to simply not expect anything from others, and that way you’re not disappointed so often. But what about when a loved one disappoints you in some way. We come to expect more from a loved one, don’t we? And so we tend to be more easily disappointed if they don’t live up to our expectations.
Sometimes we, or others, simply don’t make very good decisions, and disappointment is the result. Who is it that loves you more than anyone else? Obviously it’s God. How often do you think that we disappoint God? What do you think might be something that you do, that disappoints God? Do you ever wonder about things like that?
How do you think Jesus felt, when people that He loved, disappointed Him? You know, in His adult life, that must have been almost a constant occurrence. Did anyone ever really live up to what Jesus would have wanted them to be. Maybe some people did. For all their weaknesses, maybe in the long run, the apostles did please Jesus. Even though they were like us all, and were men of “little faith”, the faith that they did have must have pleased Jesus.
Being God Himself, I suppose that Jesus simply recognized the weaknesses of all the people around Him, and even though He must have felt disappointment over their weaknesses, He must have nonetheless rejoiced over their faith and their accomplishments.
Do you think maybe we need to be more like that? Maybe we need to be more compassionate, towards the weaknesses of others, and recognize that not everyone can live up to what we might hope for, or even expect from them. And we probably need to recognize also, that sometimes it might be we ourselves who don’t live up to what someone has expected from us.
But things like this are always more disappointing, and sometimes discouraging, when they involve the people who we love the most. We truly want what’s best for them, simply because we do love them, and that’s why it’s so much more disappointing, when something doesn’t go like we had hoped or planned.
But think again about the one who loves us, more than anyone on earth. And again, that’s God. Maybe when we experience disappointment, we can more readily identify with how God feels, and how Jesus felt, while He lived here on earth. And maybe that in turn can possibly make us that much more determined NOT to be a disappointment to God. But there’s really a lot to live up to, when it comes to our responsibility to God. We truly need to sacrifice sometimes, don’t we, to live up to what God desires for us.
The bible says in Ephesians 4, verses 1 thru 3; “I therefore the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you have been called. with all lowliness, and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit, in the bond of peace.”
That right there is a big charge which is laid upon us. To walk worthily is our responsibility to God, for what He’s done for us. To walk in lowliness, and in meekness, with longsuffering (or patience) forbearing one another in love. And at the same time, giving diligence to always be striving to keep the unity of the Spirit, and to do it in peace.
Even when someone disappoints us, or maybe especially when someone disappoints us, we still need to be faithful in all these respects. And of course as you know, these things that I just read, are but a fraction, of the things that God has told us to be faithful in.
How do you strive for peace and unity, when you’re disappointed with someone? Well, maybe by realizing our own shortcomings, an by realizing how often WE must disappoint God, maybe then we can have the longsuffering that the Lord tells us to have. How much longsuffering does God have with us? How many times have we done something, that we should have known better, and not done. Or how many times have we failed to do, what we KNOW that we should have done, and we know, that God is disappointed in us?
I just keep thinking back to the words of Jesus in Luke 13:34; “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones them sent to her. How often I would have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”
Sometimes we simply will not! And it disappoints God. And sometimes someone else simply will not, and it disappoints us. If only we had the patience of God.
