Expectations

Good Monday morning. There is something about that food that doesn't look right. My expectations have been managed by FD&C Red No. 40 until I cannot look at a proper apple without wondering what is wrong with it. If I had my own orchard, I suspect that I would be constantly asking why my apples don't look as good as those offered in the grocery store. How did my expectations get managed in this way? Easy, all of the apples in the grocery store back in the day had this dye sprayed on them. I grew up not knowing what a natural apple looked like. So much in this world is sold by what it looks like, and my expectations are managed accordingly.

I see on a Facebook post that a couple found a new home over the weekend, but without details I find it hard to celebrate with them. Why is this? Does the address and new town make such a difference? A bit, I would like to know if they are moving out of the area or staying somewhere close. Still, I should be able to celebrate the good news with them first before having my desire for statistics and location satisfied.

Once upon a time, and it wasn't always a fairy tale, I worked at a place that gave bonuses twice each year. If I had never received one and if the amount had never increased over the years, would I have missed receiving these bonuses? Probably not. Expectations can be terrible masters. When you receive a sum of money, no matter the amount, without expectations you are overjoyed. However, if someone puts an expectation into your head in the hundreds of dollars and the amount received is in the tens, suddenly it is not nearly enough for joy much less overjoy. Eh, overjoy? Is there such a thing as overjoy? There is this morning.

If you expect this wonderful devotional to start your Monday morning and you get mine instead... Wait, wait, we don't want to go there! Perhaps, we have hit upon the reason God does not spell out the good things that are coming in this life. Not everything will be tribulation for us. God is a good father who wants the best for each of us. It is not that God could not always exceed all of our expectations, but it may be better for you and me to have those expectations managed in God's wisdom before they get out of hand. We can come up with some high expectations in this life. We can make our expectations so wonderful that we lose focus on our Savior and start looking at what we expect to get in the future. We are heavenly minded, but if God were to show us Heaven, we might never look around at the world again. The world needs the followers of Jesus and we need to spread the Good News.

Bucky