Let Down | What We Expect

"My plans aren't your plans, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my plans than your plans." (Isaiah 55:8-9 CEB)

We all have expectations. About our jobs. About our relationships. About our families. About our lives. And especially about Christmas.

We expect Christmas to feel a certain way. We expect our celebrations to look a certain way. We expect the gifts we give and receive to meet certain standards. We expect our family gatherings to go a certain way. And when those expectations aren't met, when Christmas doesn't turn out the way we hoped it would, we feel let down.

And having expectations isn't wrong. The problem is that we often expect the wrong things. We expect things that sound good to us, but that might not actually be what we need. We expect things that would make us happy in the moment but wouldn't really satisfy us in the long run.

The people of Israel did the same thing when they were waiting for the Messiah. They had very specific expectations about how he would come and what he would do. They expected a powerful king who would defeat their enemies. They expected a military leader who would free them from Roman oppression. They expected someone impressive and mighty who would establish Israel as a world power.

Those expectations weren't completely wrong. The Old Testament prophecies did talk about the Messiah being a king. They did say he would rule with power and establish peace. But the people of Israel misunderstood what kind of king he would be and what kind of power he would have.

So when Jesus came – born in a stable, raised in poverty, associated with outcasts and sinners – he didn't match their expectations. And a lot of people rejected him because of it. They couldn't accept that this humble carpenter from Nazareth was the Messiah they'd been waiting for. He wasn't what they expected, so they assumed he wasn't what they needed.

But they were wrong. Jesus was exactly what they needed. He just wasn't what they expected.

We do the same thing with God all the time. We expect him to work in certain ways. We expect him to answer our prayers in certain ways. We expect him to solve our problems in certain ways. And when he doesn't do what we expect, when his ways don't look like our ways, we get frustrated. We feel disappointed. We feel let down.

But God's ways are higher than our ways. His plans are bigger than our plans. He sees things we can't see. He knows things we don't know. And he's working toward purposes that are greater than we can imagine.

The challenge for us is to let go of our expectations and trust that God knows what he's doing. To accept that his ways might look different from what we imagined but that they're always better than anything we could have planned ourselves.

Closing Prayer:

 God, forgive us for putting you in a box, for expecting you to work according to our plans instead of yours. Help us to trust that your ways are higher than our ways, even when we don't understand them. Give us the faith to believe that you know what we need better than we do. Amen.