Friday, January 30, 2015

I Hate to Disappoint you... But You're Probably Going to Be Disappointed

There is an old song that was popular in its day called, “There’s no disappointment in Heaven.”  The idea is that all the difficulties that we experience in this life will not be in heaven including the disappointments that we have here on earth.

As I think about the idea that there is not disappointment in heaven, I also think, however, of various places in the Bible where God appears to be disappointed.  In Isaiah 5, we see where God is talking about how much he did for his vineyard.   He built a fence around the vineyard, got the rocks out of the soil, planted the best vine and tended it with the best care possible and expected that it would bring forth good grapes.  I think we could infer from the context, however, that when wild grapes appeared instead of good grapes, God was disappointed.  Now I know that theologically speaking it is debateable whether God could ever be disappointed because he knows all things ahead of time.  However, just humanly speaking, I think we could say that these verses indicate that God experienced disappointment.  He did everything possible to see this vine bring forth good grapes, and in the end, it didnt’.  In the end, all of his efforts appear to have been wasted with nothing to show for it.

The older I get, the more I see that life is often full of disappointments.  Things we hoped would go differently, don’t.  Causes or goals that we put so much effort into often bring forth less than what we had hoped for, and sometimes they bring forth just the opposite of what we hoped for.  In this case in Isaiah, God got just the opposite of what he worked toward.  He looked for delicious grapes that would be useful, and instead he got bitter, sour grapes that were absolutely unusable.  

Sometimes we do everything possible to see our goals accomplished and our efforts rewarded only to find that it appears to have been wasted.  I find it so interesting to remember the story of Adam and Eve.  If we honestly look at the story, there would be no logical reason that Adam would choose to sin.  After all, he had no sin around him to tempt him.  He walked and talked with God in the evenings.  We could say that he had the best of both friends and circumstances, yet he chose to sin in that perfect environment.    God did everything that He possibly could to see that Adam walked in His ways and did right, but ultimately those efforts were not rewarded.  Even in looking at the whole scheme of salvation offered to mankind, far more people reject God’s perfect offer of salvation than those who take him up on it.

Painful disappointments come into our lives and the tendency is to look inward and see what we did wrong or how we could have done better.  I think that introspection is fine.  I think it is good to discern the faults that we have and to work on eliminating them.  I think that often disappointments do come because of mistakes and shortcomings that we have in our lives.  However, I think it is also important to remember that even God in all His perfection experiences disappointment.  He puts effort and the best that he can in hopes of seeing the results that he wants, but sometimes it doesn’t happen.  Sometimes He gets just the opposite of what He was working toward.  Because God allows man to have a will, sometimes God is disappointed.

Perhaps this is why God is careful to remind us that while man tends to look on the outside at what he can see, God always looks at the heart.  He looks at the motives, and at the intentions.  God looks at our efforts and what we hoped for and holds us accountable based on these.  God doesn’t necessarily look at the end result and say that what we see is what we get.  No, God looks far deeper.  He looks at the effort we put into it.  He looks at the desires and hopes that we had for success.  He looks at the reasons why we did it in the first place and knows that the end doesn’t really matter.  I have a quote by Mother Teresa that is hanging right beside my bed as a reminder that I need quite often.  

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough.
Give the best you've got anyway.
You see,
in the final analysis it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

We continue to experience disappointment when we allow ourselves to think that what we do is between ourselves and others.  Sometimes when things don’t happen as we hope, we despair.  However, we can experience hope when we realize that all we do is really between us and God.  All of our efforts and hopes and the motives that we have don’t really have to look good to others in the long run.  All that they have to look good for is God.  People will always misunderstand us and misjudge us, and sometimes that is our own fault.  However, in the long run, God looks at our heart and knows that it was ultimately between just us and Him and any disappointment we have has to be based on what eternity will reveal-- and we may not know that for a long time if ever.  

Do what you do today for God and hope for the best. If you reap disappointments, just remember that those disappointments are temporary.  Disappointments are often just the tip of the iceberg that we are seeing when God sees the whole iceberg of an eternity of results that please him.  In the final analysis, it is between you and God;  it was never between you and them anyway.

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