I took a sweet nap in Church last Sunday. So wrong, yeah? I shamelessly rested my head and just allowed myself doze off. My neighbour (the young man who sat beside me) nudged me once to wake up but I gave him a power-nod. You know, one of those nods that confuses even the guy trying to wake you up-- is she sleeping or in the spirit?
As a child I used to hear that when you feel drowsy in church it meant that the devil was beside you fanning you to sleep in order to steal your blessings. That memory must have been one of the things that jolted me back to reality. The nap was for like five minutes but it felt way longer.
The message for that day was about managing expectations in order to reduce the amount of disappointments we experience in life. As the passion of the preacher roared through the hall, I took some notes.
The jenniferized version:
Most times disappointment comes when we are the ones engineering things...we set goals with a now-now attitude. And so when things don't happen as we "engineered", we hit the rock bottom. Disappointed.
He also said something about the risk of comparing ourselves with others. You know. We sometimes forget that we all have our times and seasons. Living by another person's timing is risky. A big catalyst for disappointment.
It is okay to fail. Life is about winning some and loosing some. But the latter can be better managed to become a stepping stone for something greater.
The preacher man pointed out a few examples from the Bible to back each point he made. I caught some:
2 Kings 5 -- Naaman who almost missed the opportunity to be healed because he was expecting the Prophet to give him a VIP treatment. His high expectation did not match the simple instruction that he was given. If not that he tucked away his pride, God knows... Some of us have lost so many things because of pride.
Psalm 38- But God is merciful. David understood that so well.
Psalm 37:4- that key!
Yo! Have a fantastic Friday! Manage your expectations well and be kind to yourself. I am learning too.
Shalom!
