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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman My
seventy years of life tells me that failed expectations are par for the
course of life. During 1991
and 1992, for example, I experienced a life-changing failed expectation.
Once things settled down and a more positive life-changing
situation occurred, I was asked what my expectations were for my new
life. My answer was
simple and to the point. "I
have no expectations." You
may call my answer a lack of faith, but I call it the reality of life in
a fallen world. There
were three things that enabled me to survive this crushing crisis in my
life. The first of course,
was Jesus. His presence was
so real to me that one day while sitting on my love seat, I felt
compelled to glance to my left to see if He was actually sitting beside
me in some kind of physical form. Without
this real relationship with Jesus, it's difficult to survive the damage
done by such a day of
despair. The
second thing that helped me survive those days was the decades long
mutually supportive friendship I possessed with two other brothers in
Jesus. Day after day they
were there for me, something that a weekly church meeting could never
have provided in my life.
The
third thing that got me through those years was that I had embraced the
Bible's view of this present age. Adam
and Eve's failure to obey God exiled all of creation into what I call
the "Age of Entropy." The
word "entropy" is a scientific term that expresses the process
whereby all things decay and eventually die.
It's what God warned Adam about if he decided to disobey.
Failed expectations, then, are par for the course of life as we
manoeuvre our way through life's pitfalls as exiles in a fallen world.
Becoming a Christian does not nullify that reality.
It is just life until the new earth replaces this fallen earth
(Revelation 21).
When
I consider these things, I am reminded of the apostle Paul's severed
relationship with the Christians in Corinth. His second letter to
those believers shows us that he was devastated over the failure to
maintain a lasting friendship with these people, that as far as we know,
may never have been restored. Despite
being devastated, Paul survived that failed expectation.
With the help of Jesus and his close brothers in
Christ, along with the Bible's view of this present Age of Entropy, the
reality of failed expectations became manageable for Paul.
Like Paul, we acknowledge our failed expectations, and as we do,
we pick up the pieces and move onto the next venture in life.
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