Expectations

We are here on the beautiful island of Jamaica and I am so happy to see old friends and make many new ones - already!  

Yes Jay - the steeple is still attached!

The national animal - just kidding!

The team of teens are one of the best we've ever had - and I'm pretty sure we say that every year.  I am just loving getting to know each and every one of them.

But today I want to share with you a devotional thought...about expectations.  

What are your expectations for your life?  your summer?  your week?  tomorrow?

Read this story...

"

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.

Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.

Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.

One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said,

“for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up.

Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

Instantly, the man was healed!

He rolled up his sleeping mat

and began walking!”

John 5:1-9

What do you think this lame guy’s expectations were for the day?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure he just expected to lay around this “magic pool” all day and maybe – just maybe - when the healing bubbles came -  someone would help him get there first.

It hadn’t happened, for him, in 38 years, but you never know! (Really?)  (you have to admire his tenacity)

or - could it be that he just had that much faith - that it could still possibly happen to him?  Hmmmm  - pondering this….

Well, HIS expectations weren’t met – were they? 

Well – were they?

Here he was – expecting his miracle to come from this magic water.  This is where he had seen it happen for others.  If he could just get to that water…. Just a little quicker.

Ahhh – next time – next time!

But – (and if you study the Scriptures at all you will quickly see that God has put a LOT of what I call “Big But” statements in it – and that’s “Big But” not “Big Butt” – whatever)

BUT – God had other plans!  I love this about God!

We have our expectations – and we think they are so big and great and noble…and God laughs at them.

We calculate our expectations from other people's experiences, our past situations, and what we’ve seen happen before - and we base our “expectations” on that.  (so tiny)

BUT – God has something so much bigger and better than you can ever hope or dream or imagine! 

That is pretty big – because as far as I'm concerned - I’m a pretty big dreamer!

So – maybe we need to write out our expectations based on what God can do and has done and wants to do.  (Ponder that for awhile)

and while you're pondering that... here's a verse that's hanging on my mirror at home...

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    

“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    

so my ways are higher than your ways
    

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9