Old and disappointed, part IV
T his is the fourth installment in a series entitled “Old and Disappointed.”
Have you have been disappointed in your parents, a child, a friend, with work, your marriage partner or in a special event that was supposed to bring you joy and pleasant memories but neither happened?
Each one of us have expectations for our lives.
Expectations not being fulfilled lead to being disappointed. Disappointments are carried like excess baggage throughout our lives.
What can we do?
There is the thought that if one never expects anything, one can never be disappointed. What a sad way to live. Living without expectations? How disappointing life would be!
Disappointments can quickly become sorrow.
Many of our disappointments reveal themselves later in life. It is common for one partner in a relationship to wait for the other partner to retire and begin their years of traveling, fulfilling lifelong dreams. But life is cruel and unfortunate, just as they are about to enjoy the fruits of their work, their plans are cut short by sickness, financial setback, or death.
Waiting for a grandchild to be born, only to receive the tragic news that the expected child has passed in the womb. Disappointment beyond description. Life’s disappointments challenge our faith, shaking us to our core causing doubts and questioning God.
Lately, I listen to many people who are disappointed with their church.
COVID severely curtailed many church activities and many ceased operating altogether. Churches are attempting to recover but many Christians have forever been changed due to the COVID shutdown, fear, apathy and the general unhappy state of affairs our culture is embroiled in.
Like other cultural institutions, “church” will never be the same as it was prior to COVID.
As I examine the disappointments in my life, I do well to understand that others have experienced greater disappointments and have gone on to live generous and productive lives. From those before us we learn to overcome disappointments so we do not become old, sorrowful, and discouraged.
It is important to acknowledge that no one escapes failures and disappointments. Knowing this, one must prepare to navigate through the difficulties and disappointments that come into each life.
Failures come in different forms. Are you surprised by the failures of others we read about in the headlines or hear in news reports? I am not surprised. Failures and disappointments are the hallmark of the human experience.
In the Holy Bible, moral and spiritual failures of others can serve as an effective teacher for our lives. There is a long list of heroes of faith found in Hebrews chapter eleven. This chapter is celebrated among Christians and each person we read of have a story of great faith. But before the great faith appears in the person there was the great failure and severe disappointments. Do you know their stories?
Do you know that one of the women in the family lineage of Jesus was a prostitute (Matthew 1:5)?
Do you know that Jacob created the circumstances for his son, Joseph to be sold into slavery?
Did you know that Moses, lived an extremely privileged life, was educated by the greatest minds of Egypt, murdered another man, and then ran and hid in a dessert for forty years? When God speaks to Moses through the burning bush, he was eighty years old. During the forty years in the desert, he replayed his life over and over in his mind, reliving his failures and disappointments. Ancient Israel’s greatest king, David, “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14 & Acts 13:22) committed adultery and murder.
The list goes on with people, flesh, and blood like us, with their failures and disappointments, each one having to overcome their disappointments and circumstances, “having gained approval through their faith” (Hebrews 11:39).
Being old and disappointed can drive us into a deep depression or it can motivate us into an abundant life and faith worth living by.
I pray you choose to let your disappointments motivate you to a better, happier, and productive life. Next week we begin the process of overcoming being disappointed.
Clayton P. Adams, West Memphis, AR email: claytonpadams lll@gmail.com.
Clayton Adams
