Sunday, March 23, 2008

"UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS"

By Dr. Wayne Cagle (President of Asia Pacific Theological Seminary)


I've been thinking about the topic of "unfulfilled expectations". How easy it is for me to expect more of others than they can give or do. Then when our friends or colleagues do not meet our expectations, we are disappointed which can be displayed in our attitudes towards them. Sometimes our expectations are unrealistic. Sometimes people are just incapable or unwilling or just don't care about the issues we care about. When expectations go unfulfilled our behavior and/or our attitude towards that person can be affected. Even as Believers, we often fail to meet the expectations of non-believers who look at Christians and expect more than they observe.

The other side of it is that we should expect a lot of ourselves and we have a right to expect righteous conduct and good examples of those who make certain claims about their lives and beliefs. The danger zone for believers is the fine line between judging others harder than we judge ourselves and rightful expectations of ourselves to live up to the standards we say we hold as well as expecting the same of others. The Biblical statement that comes to mind here is found in 2 Corinthians 4:7:

"If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusion God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at." The Message