disappointed

Have you been disappointed recently?
I know I have been.

Just because you have a relationship with God, doesn’t make you immune to being disappointed at some time or many times during your life.

Sometimes things don’t go the way we plan.
Sometimes people do things that hurt us.
Whatever caused it is not ultimately what will define the disappointment. It is what happens next…

It is about ‘response’ verses ‘reaction’.
Anyone can react to disappointment. No real skill there!
But choosing how your will respond is harder, and harder is normally the right way to go (check out last weeks thought for more on that one).

For most of my life, when I have faced the “d” word...I have reacted. Sometimes I have sulked. Sometimes I have cried...other times just got angry.
But I have been trying to do it a little different recently.

Most of you will have heard of a man called Jesus!
Well one day he gets some news that disappoints him.
He hears that a person he has known since his childhood has been wrongly executed. Beheaded in fact!
His mother knew the friends mother.
They were part of the same extended family.
At one stage their lives crossed very publicly where this friend honoured him very highly. Even baptizing him.

Now he is dead and Jesus has to choose.
Respond verses React.

So what does he do?
Well you read that he withdraw from everybody for a short time and prayed. That is his response.

As disciples, the encouragement you can take from his story, his example...is what to do when you are facing a disappointment.
Don’t run around telling everybody why someone is a jerk for hurting you. Because that will still leave you hurting.
Get away with God for even just a short while. Pray.
Give it over to the one who understands completely.

If you read the next part of the story...he fed 5000 people with a small amount of food.
Maybe if we handle things right when we face disappointment a greater miracle is actually just around the corner?

Something to think about…