Dear Sister,
Oh man, there I was, gazing at a steaming undercooked brownie crowned with vanilla ice cream that began to melt as it was placed carefully on the mass of brownie goodness. I grabbed for the ordered dessert and noticed the caramel sauce sweetly simmering on top…and then I noticed the nuts. I hate nuts. It was almost enough to make me not even take a bite of the exuberantly priced prize that just moments ago looked like the answer to another bad day.
I opened the mailbox to see yet another letter rejecting me from medical school. My heart fell and I even got angry. I told the letter how big of a mistake it was to reject the finest doctor they could have ever graduated.
The stick silently screamed once again that I was not pregnant.
Pain and sadness from disappointment is very real no matter how it is presented. It can rear itself anywhere from an order made wrong to a marriage gone bad. Each case seems just as painful at the moment. How can that be? How can I be just as disappointed from nuts on ice cream to a husband who no longer sees or hears me? It is because at that moment, no matter what it is, I am trying to find my joy and contentment from something of this world. I think the perfect brownie sundae or marriage will make life that much sweeter. When it doesn’t, I am dreadfully disappointed. Have you ever felt that way? What are we to do with this discouraging disappointment?
First of all sweet sister, know that we can find encouragement that Christ was also disappointed in his time here on earth. His disciples really bumbled around his teachings and showed lack of faith when Jesus taught or performed miracles. On the hardest day of his life, his three closest friends should have been his dearest comfort, yet they couldn’t even stay awake with him as heanguished in prayer. He knows what it is like to be disappointed. But he is also the One who paid the ultimate price so we will never be disappointed ultimately again. Our sins are forgiven forever, our debt is paid, and we have the hope of heaven! Jesus not only understands disappointment, he made a way to overcome them forever!
So let us pray when disappointment claws at our hearts that we will remember three things: 1) Jesus is a mediator who understands what we are going through because he has experienced it; 2) Our disappointment shows us our sin of trying to find contentment in this world; and 3) Our ultimate salvation, joy and hope is in Christ, not in anything of this world.
Your sister in Christ,
Colleen