I am taking a little side trip today. I actually have more than one idea for blogs today, strangely enough. But I was struck by how our expectations can set us up for either a fall or for blessings. Our expectations really seem to come out of our world view. In the West, especially the US, we seem to have this expectation that life is going to be easy for us. Even our president seems to think that life should be safe, and all of us should be able to have affordable healthcare. In fact some seem to think that our government's job is to prevent anything bad from happening, to make sure we have a home and that we feel good about ourselves.
My main point though is that by having expectations that we will get what we think we need or what we want, or that we should get what we want, or that we are some how deserving of these things sets us up for disappointment, delusion or possibly a sense of entitlement. The truth is that there is no guarantee that we will get anything in this life. Jesus did however say that we should expect difficulties in this life.
When we think somehow that we are deserving of good things, or the things we want, we set ourselves up to be disappointed and/or depressed. The major part of the world suffers all kinds of problems; famine, brutal attacks by thugs and brigands, lives without many creature comforts at all. These people don't necessarily enjoy such lives, but they accept that is part of their lot. All they can do is work to make what little corner they have better. They realize that there are many things out of their control. They can only control those things that are in front of them. They make the best with what they have.
But there are some in the west who get this and I think This Video really says it better than I can - Enjoy!
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