The God of Disappointment
Ok, so I’m really no good at keeping secrets (my own secrets–I am good at keeping other people’s secrets) because I get so excited about things God shows me I have to share them. John Piper once said that if you find yourself, when you are studying and reading God’s Word, constantly thinking of ways to communicate those truths to others, then you can pretty much bet that you’re a teacher at heart. That hit me like a ton of bricks. Ok, guilty as charged. I’m a teacher.
So I mentioned before I’m teaching at this women’s retreat (Kelli please just act surprised when I share this stuff with the ladies there!), and for the past few weeks I have been absolutely spinning my wheels at studying. NOTHING is happening. I’m praying, reading, studying, and it’s like I have this bag over my head and I can see nothing. So frustrating. So I kept waiting and praying and today I’m studying and the light is finally turning on! Thank you, God. God always reminds me that it is His Spirit that does the work because I literally am nothing and have nothing to say until His Spirit illuminates His Word for me.
So anyway, we are talking at the retreat about Expectancy without Expectation, and the first session is on Disappointments. Who of us hasn’t keenly felt disappointments? I’ve mentioned before I feel like this entire year has been one long disappointment. But I’ve never found a book entitled “The God of Disappointment”…but right now I’m tempted to write one! Because check this out, if you look at Scripture, God is all about disappointing people! I looked up the word disappointment in my dictionary and it said, (tada!) “Thwarted Expectation”. God is in the business of thwarting our expectations so that He can do greater and more glorious works than we ever imagined. Hooray! Not convinced yet? Check out these examples:
- Abraham: God promises he will be the father of many nations right? Then what? He can’t have kids. He’s disappointed. Expectations thwarted. He then gets so frustrated he takes matters into his own hands and has Ishmael, the child of the flesh, through his servant Hagar. Bickering and grief ensue.
- Joseph: God shows him in a dream that his brothers will bow down to him as ruler. He winds up dumped in a pit then sold to the Egyptians, then spends 14 years in a prison, wrongly accused of harassing Potipher’s wife, then forgotten by the cupbearer, forsaken. Disappointed. Thwarted Expectations.
- Moses: God will make him the deliverer of Israel. Then what? He kills an Egyptian and there’s a warrant out for his head, basically. He winds up spending 40 long years living with his father-in-law in the desert (hey, that sounds familiar!). Disappointed. Expectations thwarted.
- The children of Israel: God is going to deliver them from the Egyptians and the hand of Pharaoh, so after the exhilarating plagues and parting of the Red Sea, then what? Left to wander in the wilderness for forty years while the entire complaining generation is slowly killed off. Disappointed. Thwarted Expectations.
- David: God will make him king, anoints him through the prophet Samuel. Then what? Saul tries to have him killed, and he spends 10-14 years living in caves in the desert, trying to escape from the hand of Saul. Disappointed. Expectations thwarted.
- The Disciples: God will send a Messiah who will come and save the world. Then Jesus comes, who neither fights nor takes over anything, doesn’t even resist the Romans, but is a lowly servant and calls them to a lowly servant life. Then he does the unthinkable and goes and gets Himself killed-what a tragic end! Disappointment. Expectations thwarted.
There is obviously more to these stories … and that is where we will go later on in the weekend. But consider just stepping in at halftime. What would they think? What emotions would they feel? I suggest that they would feel keen and miserable disappointment. I suggest that we love and serve an awesome, majestic, glorious, beautiful, worthy, and infinitely valuable God of Disappointment. And I love Him for it. 🙂