Day 22 Lenten Journey

Disappointment. I'm sure you've NEVER felt it.  Disappointment comes so often , in so many forms , often daily, to us as Christians. Disappointment in  work situations. Loss of job. Money woes. Vacation plans snarled. Disappointment in the government. In Family situations. In well laid plans. Disappointment in people, in general.

I was watching my guilty pleasure, "the Bachelor" . (unless you live under a rock, this show is about a young man who dates , like 34 women, and after about 2 months, chooses one that he, hopefully, will propose to at the end. Kinda lame concept but it makes for entertaining T.V.! And you truly start getting into the whole dating thing! pulling for the girl you want him to choose!). I was watching a recorded one yesterday, actually. The Bachelor is now down to 3 lovely ladies. And it's time to send another one packing. This adorable girl came bouncing in and hugged him and told him, "I'm in love with you. I just couldn't wait to tell you". The look on the the bachelor's face told the story. He wasn't in love with her.  He was very sweet/compassionate with her but told her that he wasn't in love with her. The look on her face? Well,  let me just say, that is DISAPPOINTMENT , friends. It was painful to watch. Her love for him in one scene all over her face. And after his remark, the DISAPPOINTMENT was hard to watch all over her beautiful face. And why DO we watch shows like that ? Because we've all felt that way! Maybe not getting rejected on national T.V. , but we've had moments where we were so disappointed we , too, wanted to sob and flee. And we feel the disappointment will never, ever end.

Jesus knew about disappointment. Mary and Martha were seeking Him out one day. Why? their beloved brother had died and he was a dear friend of Jesus. One of my favorite verses (writing this makes even me laugh, since I have about ten million "favorites) is short/sweet/profound. "Jesus Wept". John 11:35. JESUS wept. Jesus cried when Mary told him. Was Jesus disappointed , even though He knew He could raise him from the dead? YES. I believe he was. Deep disappointment that His friend suffered and died.  we have all know that kind of suffering. Loss of a friend. A life. A dream for what could have been. 

Max Lucado is my favorite Christian author. His understanding of the scriptures coupled with amazing and deep thoughts just paint a beautiful and realistic understanding of the Word of God and Jesus to me. I LOVE to read his books.  I also get devotions from him in email and this was a smidgen of today's from "You'll Get Through This" by Max Lucado:

"You’ll get through this. You fear you won’t. We all do. We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. Here in the pits, surrounded by steep walls and angry brothers, we wonder, Will this gray sky ever brighten? This load ever lighten? We feel stuck, trapped, locked in. Predestined for failure. Will we ever exit this pit?

Yes!

Out of the lions’ den for Daniel, the prison for Peter, the whale’s belly for Jonah, Goliath’s shadow for David, the storm for the disciples, disease for the lepers, doubt for Thomas, the grave for Lazarus, and the shackles for Paul. God gets us through stuff. Through the Red Sea onto dry ground (Exodus 14:22), through the wilderness (Deuteronomy 29:5), through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4), and through the deep sea (Psalm 77:19)".


Many days , just when life is going so perfectly you want to scream (and sometimes do), "Life is amazing! thank you, Jesus!!!!", you get a "bachelor goodbye". You put all your eggs in one basket and sigh and say "this is perfect". And one egg smells. Rotten. Disappointment sets in, once again. But you can do one of two things, I've learned.  
1. throw all the eggs out and thus miss blessings of all the others
2. remove the one rotten egg and say to yourself "this too shall pass". And chunk it out the window. *great lesson from JLPF. haha

Yes, life is FULL of disappointments, as we all know. Jesus didn't promise we wouldn't have them. He did promise to be there when huge disappointments come our way. If you have a loss of a dream, start creating another. If you are disappointed deeply in someone, don't give up on them, just pray for them. If you get a fish sandwich instead of the Big Mac you ordered, try the fish. It might taste better!

Disappointments suck. When they come, squeeze back the tears and pull yourself up. Search diligently for the rainbow in the storm cloud. You  might not see all the colors of the rainbow, but you'll get a glimpse of one color. More than likely, the whole rainbow will come later, when you least expect it.

#lentenjourney #disappointmentsux #Jesusunderstoodit #trythebigmac