Sacred Mundane: The Blog

If God never disappoints us, but we who love and serve Him experience disappointment, then what is wrong with us? Do we not have enough faith? Are we spiritually second-class citizens? Overlooked perhaps or forgotten by the Father? Or maybe just losers?

Every wondered that?

Last week we looked at disappointment: when the road is long, when no one understands, and when you must be silent.

So does God purposefully disappoint us?

I say, yes.

It is clear from Scripture that we serve a God who strategically and purposefully disappoints us, in order to accomplish something far greater in our lives and protect us from getting on the disappointment cycle.

That’s the “bad” news. The good news is that our encountering disappointment may be the most encouraging thing we face: Because it means God has great plans.

But first we have to understand, more clearly, what disappointment is. When we understand what it is, it’s easier to see God’s kindness in the midst of it.

The definition of disappointment is simple: Thwarted expectations.

When we start looking at our disappointments in terms of thwarted expectation, we begin to make some headway in this transformation process.  Keep that in mind as we look at these examples of how God strategically thwarts our expectations to serve a greater purpose.

But who does He disappoint? In our experiences with disappointment, one of the hardest things was feeling that we must be losers if we are experiencing this much disappointment. Surely, something was wrong with us. The disappointment seeps down beneath the surface and takes root, shakes the core of who you are. So who are we, you, all of us who God in His sovereignty chooses to disappoint?

God strategically disappoints those for whom He has great plans.

Can disappointment really be a sign of divine promise? Check this out…

Abraham: (Genesis 13-22): God promises that Abraham will be the father of many nations. Then what?  Poor Abe can’t have kids. He’s disappointed. Expectations thwarted. Consider this timeline:

When Abraham is 75 years old the promise is given (Gen. 13:14-15 is the first place mentioned, reiterated often).  At 85 years old (10 years later), Abraham takes matters into own hands with Hagar and Ishmael (Gen. 16:3). At 100 years of age the son of promise is finally born (21:5).  Fifteen years after the attempt of the flesh. Twenty-five years after the initial promise. Remember when the road is long? They try to get pregnant, then spend two weeks obsessing over and hoping they’re pregnant. Then the disappointment comes, and it takes two weeks to recover and get their hopes up again and then the whole cycle starts again.  Hope, disappoint, recover. Imagine this, every month, being disappointed for 25 years. You could figure that’s 300 disappointing months… 300 Disappointments. That’s a long road of thwarted expectations.

Joseph: (Gen. 37, 39-42) God shows him in a dream that his brothers will bow down to him.  He winds up dumped in a pit (after barely escaping being murdered by them!)  then sold as a slave to the Egyptians (v.28), is lied about so that his father thinks that he is dead, is taken into Potipher’s house where he does everything right, then is wrongly accused of trying to rape Potipher’s house, is unjustly incarcerated, then spends time in prison, helps out two of his inmates by interpreting dreams, but then is forgotten by them and left in prison for TWO whole years before Pharoah has a dream that Joseph interprets and is let out of prison. Probably about 13 years from the prophetic dream to fulfillment of that dream.   Disappointed.  Thwarted Expectations.

Moses: (Exodus)  Moses’ heart burns with a desire to deliver his people from the unjust treatment of the Egyptians.  Then what? He kills an Egyptian and there’s a warrant out for his head.  He winds up tending sheep in the back of the desert for his father in law in. When God gives his promise in Exodus 3:7-10 it sounds like it would all happen in one glorious day, or week. But no, it happens through failure, complaining, much death, unbelief.  When he first goes back with grand expectations, things only get worse.  Pharoah increases the workload and all the people complain and grumble against him.  And then they continue to complain and whine against him for more than 40 years.  What he expected?  Not really.  Disappointed.  Expectations thwarted.

David: (1 Sam. 16) Samuel the prophet anoints David as king, the Spirit of Lord comes upon Him.  Onward King! Right?  No.  Then what? Saul tries to kill him, over and over and over and over and he spends 10-14 years living in caves in the desert, trying to escape from the hand of Saul. His wife is given to another man.  Some of his actions result in the slaughter of 85 priests.  At one point the Amalekites invaded and took all his and his men’s wives and children and all that they had.  What happened to King of Israel?  He is nothing but a homeless man on the run, hated, having lost everything, and still hunted to be killed by Saul.  Do you think this was what he expected?  No.  Disappointed. Expectations thwarted.

Disciples: The disciples know that God will send a Messiah who will come and save the world.  Then Jesus comes, who neither fights nor takes over anything, but is a lowly servant and calls them to a lowly servant life.  Then he does the unthinkable and goes and gets himself killed without even putting up a fight-what a tragic end!  Imagine this moment.  They have left everything.  They have left their jobs, some have left their families, possessions, status, everything, to follow his man who claims that He is a king and will be the deliverer of Israel.  They obviously figured there was so gain to be had.  And then, to end it all, their Savior is dead.  It’s all over.  No revolution.  No overthrowing the Roman government.  Nothing.  It was all for naught.  Disappointment.  Expectations thwarted.

Do you see a pattern? Strategic Disappointment. Intentionally thwarted expectations. And these are God’s spiritual giants, heroes of the faith. Ordinary people for whom God had extraordinary plans.

Just like you.

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Take a quick look around the landscape of your life.  Do you see any disappointment, any thwarted expectations? God might just be at work, and yours might be a life for whom God has great plans.

I pray God gives you a glimpse of His great purpose today, His special hand on your life.  Thank you for reading.