Life has an innumerable number of ways to disappoint us.
I can never count the times I have been disappointed in my life. Disappointment
I have brought upon myself by bad choices, disappointments I have incurred by
the actions of others, and disappointments because life does not treat us fairly. Why should we expect it to? We live among
fallen men and women in a cursed world. Sinners will do what sinners do. Sometimes
things go our way, but many times they do not. In the course of my pastoral ministry for 34
years I have seen the heartaches, the tears, the sorrows, and the death of
dreams that disappointment brings. The career you wanted failed to
materialize. The loving husband or wife you desired turned out to be someone other
than you thought. The son or daughter you raised went their own way. The robust
health you worked to obtain and maintain brought you cancer instead. The friends you thought you had for life, could not be found when you when you needed them the most. In times like these we can begin to feel that even God has disappointed
us and forsaken us. He seems like a distant stranger. You are not alone. On the road to Emmaus two disciples of
Jesus met someone who appeared to be a stranger. The encounter in Luke 24:13-21 goes
like this:
"Now behold, two of them were traveling
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from
Jerusalem. And
they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was,
while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went
with them. But their
eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have
with one another as you walk
and are sad?” Then the
one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only
stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there
in these days?” And He
said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of
Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and
all the people, and
how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death,
and crucified Him. Him. But we were hoping that it was He who
was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day
since these things happened.
Did you pick up on the disappointment of
the disciples? They were hoping Jesus was
going to redeem Israel and usher in the Kingdom of God they longed for. But
that did not happen. Jesus had been crucified on a cross and a dead Messiah/deliverer
does not offer any hope, or so they reasoned. After Jesus called them foolish
ones and slow of heart, He explained that what had happened was all in the plan
of God for a greater purpose and "And
beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in
all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (27). This is the problem we all face in the midst of our disappointments.
We cannot see what God can see. We do not know what only God can know. We fail
to understand the greater purpose God is fulfilling in our lives. We know that
all things work together for good to those who love God etc., but somehow in the
midst of our disappointment, that Scripture in Romans 8 seems like a promise to others and not
to us. What do we do in such
times? What did Habakkuk do when he looked for answers?
“I will stand my
watch and set myself on the rampart,
and watch to see what He will
say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected (Habakkuk 2:1).
God’s
answer was write what I tell you, in the end it will not disappoint, wait for
it - because it will surely come to pass. And while you are waiting to make sense of it all,
remember that, “the just shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). Keep pressing on dear saints of God, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Our disappointments are God’s way of drawing us
closer to Him. They are the fire that He uses to refine the gold and make us
more like His Son.
Keep pressing on,
Pastor Tom
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