(Dis)appointment

Excerpts from "Traveling Light" By Max Lucado (One of my favorite books)

"Most of us like appointments. Even the organizationally inepts like appointments. Appointments create a sense of predictability in an unpredictable world. Down deep we know we control the future as much as a caboose controls the train, yet our Day-Timers give us the illusion that we do. A disappointment reminds us that we don't. A disappointment is a missed appointment. What we hoped would happen, didn't."

Lucado talks about how we can let the wounds from our disappointments consume our life or we can follow the example of the apostle Paul.

"His goal was to be a missionary in Spain. Rather than send Paul to Spain, howeveer, God sent him to prison. Sitting in a Roman jail, Paul could have made the same choice as Miss Haversham(Great Expectations), but he didn't. Instead he said, "As long as I'm here, I might as well write a few letters." Hence your bible has the Epistles to Philemon, the Philippians, the Colossians, and the Ephesians. No doubt Paul would have done a great work in Spain. But would it have compared with the work of those four letters?"

We all face disappointment in our lives, and it's painful.

"How did you handle it? Better asked, how are you handling it? Could you use some help? I've got just what you need. Six words in the fifth verse of the Twenty-third Psalm: "You anoint my head with oil."

Clearly the question is what does oil have to do with disappointment. Lucado goes on to explain that in ancient Israel shepherds used oil for three purposes: to repel insects, to prevent conflicts, and to heal wounds. Bugs bug people, but they can kill sheep. The annoy and pester sheep to no end. They can drive them so intensely crazy that the sheep will beat their heads against trees, and may even kill themselves when they get too frenzied. The oil also keeps them from head butting each other, and then repairs any wounds they receive.

"Just like sheep we have wounds, but ours are wounds of the heart that come from disappointment after disappointment. If we're not careful, these wounds lead to bitterness. And so just like sheep, we need to be treated."

"So we, like the sheep, get wounded. And we, like the sheep, have a shepherd. Remember the words read? "We belong to him; we are his people, the sheep he tends. (Ps 100:3) He will do for you what the shepherd does for the sheep. He will tend to you."

"Jesus tends to his sheep. And he will tend to you. If you will let him. How? How do you let him? The steps are so simple. First, go to him. David would trust his wounds to no other person but God. He said, "YOU anoint my head with oil." Not, "your prophets," "your teachers," or "your counselors." Others may guide us to God. Others may help us to understand God. But no one does the work of God, for only God can heal. God "heals the brokenhearted."(Ps. 147.3)"

"Have you taken your disappointments to God? You've shared them with your neighbor, your relatives, your friends. But have you taken them to God? James says, "Anyone who is having troubles shoudl pray" (James 5:13)"

"Before you go anywhere else with your disappointments, go to God."

"Your first step is to go to the right person. Go to God. Your second step is to assume the right posture. Bow before God. In order to be anointed, the sheep must stand still, lower their heads, and let the shepher do his work. Peter urges us to be "humble under God's powerful hand so he will lift you up when the right time comes" (1 Pet 5:6)"

"When we come to God, we make requests; we don't make demands. We come with high hopes and a humble heart. We state what we want, but we pray for what is right. And if God gives us the prison of Rome instead of the mission of Spain, we accept it because we know "God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day, and he will not be slow to answer them (Luke 18:7)"

"We go to him. We bow before him, and we trust in him."

"The sheep doesn't understand why the oil repels the flies. The sheep doesn't understand how the oil heals the wounds. In fact, all the sheep knows is that something happens in the presence of the shepherd. And that's all we need to know as well. "Lord, I give myself to you; my God, I trust you." (Ps. 25:1-2)"

"Go."

"Bow."

"Trust."

"Worth a try, don't you think?"