When We Get Disappointed

“But, I want to be in the talent show, mom,” my 1stgrader whimpered. She wanted to sing in the talent show with a friend who suddenly developed cold feet.

As the cold air began singing around her, a solitary tear of grief welled up in the corner of her eye. All of the sudden, the dam broke and a flood of disappointment coursed down her six year old face. As I watched her, my eyes screamed out for justice. A soft voice echoed through the hallway of my mind, “You remember what it’s like to be disappointed, don’t you?”

Disappointment is a feeling of being let down, a feeling of sadness or frustration because something was not as good, attractive, or satisfactory as expected.

God designed us to live in anticipation and expectation of Him. He created us to be goal-seekers and plan-makers. When we project a specific outcome, we live in expectation of seeing it come to fruition. Seeing our hopes and dreams realized.

“Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around.” –Proverbs 13:12, (MSG)

Has your heart ever been sick with disappointment?

My casserole tasted like rubber at the dinner party.

That relationship didn’t work out the way I thought it would.

The sting of disappointment hurts, sometimes for a long time. We long for God to apply the healing salve that will take the pain away forever.

Just because we are followers of Jesus doesn’t mean we are immune to disappointment.

When things don’t go our way, we have a tendency to gripe and complain to anyone who will listen. We say with finger-snapping punctuation, “Oh, unh-unh, it wasn’t supposed to be this way.” Seemingly, this only stirs the pot and keeps a steady boil bubbling in our hearts.

God listens.

God’s a good listener. He doesn’t mind hearing all about our complaints. He prefers we go to him first, not our best girlfriend or even our mama. Why not go straight to the One who can actually do something about our circumstances.

God doesn’t turn his back.

God didn’t turn his back or roll his eyes as the Psalmist sang in frustration over their disappointments. He listened to each poetic account of hurt and heartbreak. This resulted in God’s glorification even in the midst of their personal turmoil. In the end, they were the recipients of God’s best and greatest blessings.

When expectation and disappointment collide, there is only one thing to do.

Get to Jesus.

Get there without delay.

Don’t pause to look around.

Run.

Get to Him.

He will dislodge the hurt and bitterness that threatens divine intimacy with him. He will prune away limbs of disappointment before they overshadow God’s Fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

So what do we do the next time our soul dips low from aches of disappointment? We must remember to get to Jesus, quickly.We must abide in the truth of Psalm 22:5 that says, when we get to Jesus we will “NOT be disappointed.”

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