Living Up to Expectations!

If you read my posting of yesterday, you would know that Sharon and I took in the performance of Riverdance at the Hershey Theater last night. We went with high expectations and we were not disappointed. I can't recall ever seeing foot work like I observed last night. The dancers seemed to glide across the stage as they tapped and stomped, moving as one with each other and the music. And the musicians (all five of them) were among the most talented muscians I have heard perform live! Add in some acappella choral arrangements - that were both soothing and haunting at the same time, and it made for quite the enchanting evening. If you ever have the chance to see this performance - GO!

But what if the performance of the dancers, musicians and vocalists had not lived up to our expectations? What if the vocalists had been off key, the dancers out of sinc and the instrumentalists had missed notes? If that had been the case, we would have walked away disappointed. And the greater the gap between our high expectations for the evening and the reality of it all - the greater our disappointment would have been.

All of us have expectations about everything all the time. And if reality falls short of our expectations - we experience disappointment. If we allow that disappointment to linger in our souls, then we experience discouragement which will eventually grow into disillusionment, then depression and finally despair (this is what I call the 5-D response to unmet expectations). It is important to understand this if we are to avoid this downward decline toward despair. So what can we do? Two suggestions:

1. Be aware of your expectations. Ask yourself "Are my expectations of this event or of this person too high? Too unrealistic?" Remember, if you set your expectations too high - you are setting yourself up to be disappointed (which is the first step in this 5-D response to unmet expectations). We live in a broken and fallen world among broken and fallen people (and that includes you and me!). Yet we were designed to live in a perfect world among perfect people. So life and people will not always live up to expectations! So be aware of your expectations.

2. When expectations are not met - deal with your disappointment quickly and if you need to do so, adjust your expectations. But if your expectations are met, be thankful (to God and others).

Expectations. It is important that you keep them in mind!

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj