Expectations

First let me start off saying I love old people- okay okay true life I just love people in general. Random I know but at the dermatologist (yes yes i go to the derm anyways) There was an old couple there and they were the sweetest things ever. The old man had a walker and he couldn't open any doors and the old woman after kissing his cheek told him she needed to use the ladies room. So since she wasn't there to open his doors and it would have been difficult for him to open them I got up and opened all the doors for him and he looked at me and said "You know back in my day we would have been rivals" Now this took me by surprise and I said "Now really!? Whys that?" he replied "Now I'm a Wofford man graduated in '52 and we don't really like those Clemson Tigers much." Realizing I had on a Clemson sweatshirt I said "Well I'm sorry to hear that because I sure do love my Tigers but maybe we could have been friends." He chuckled and said "why yes I think we could have, ya know I went to seminary and served as a Chaplin in Vietnam twice and served in other places too." I told him how amazing that was and how I was really glad to meet him and he just smiled and went on his way. Gosh he made my day. So, then I went home and made dinner yay! If you don't know I LOVE veggies and I like to make sure dinner is a well balanced meal. SOOOO for tonight I made lemon garlic tilapia (basically take tilapia filet and add lemon juice a little garlic a smidge of butter and herbs), mashed potatoes, carrots, zucchini patties (basically take chopped zucchini add some bread crumbs, an egg, and some old bay-I love these because its different than just having grilled/baked/or steamed veggies and you still get the nutrients!) Anyways here is the final product and let me tell you the fam loved it.

On to expectations. I've really actually been thinking about this a lot lately and here is what I've come up with. We have SO many expectations (well I can't talk for yall so I guess the correct pronoun is I) but correct me if I'm wrong I think everyone has expectations.  There are expectations of ourselves: getting the best grades, being the best student, having the best YL club, being the best YL leader, being the best daughter/son, doing our quiet time every day, being the best Christian, being the best friend, making sure people like you, keeping up your great reputation, if you are an athlete being the best athlete. Then there are expectations others have of you: teachers expect you to do the work they assign, friends rely on you to be there, you are expected to keep up with your responsibilities in any organization you are involved in. Also, there are expectations of events- let me elaborate. Say you are going to a place where there are a lot of people hanging out and in your mind before you get there you go through a scenario that you will hang out with this person and get to know them more or it's going to be the best time ever and there won't be any awkward moments- you're setting an expectation for how you think the night will go. I may be weird in the fact that sometimes I come up with scenarios in the far future - for instance this summer I will go ahead and think oh I'm going to do this and this and this and I'm going to get closer with this person or this person- and by me doing that I'm almost setting myself up for failure because I'm setting and expectation for what I think will happen.

This is BAD and it often leads to a lot of disappointment. Trust me I know from plenty of experience. BUT here is what I have noticed. When I go into situations without expectations I find that I have SO much more fun, more than I could have imagined. And when I don't feel the pressure of expectations I end up being better than I could have expected. I know there is a lot of pressure and we feel like there are always going to be expectations but here is my challenge let's try to live life without expectations. By doing that we can live in the mystery of God and God's plan for us. It takes A LOT of pressure off AND in the end we end up having so much more fun than we could have even imagined.

Let me paint you a picture. Here is a story I KNOW many if not all of you have heard before. But let's look at it through the eyes of expectation.

Jesus Calms the Storm  

²³ Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. ²⁴ Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. ²⁵ The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”  ²⁶ He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm ²⁷ The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” 

 So here's my thing. There is this huge storm....I think of something like in the movie the Guardian for the last mission they go into the ocean and the water has these massive swells (it could have been even bigger than that but I digress), so they are in the midst of this storm and obviously they are freaking out. I love how Jesus is sleeping and is chill because He knows everything is under control (man to have faith like that) anyways so the disciples go over and wake him up. Here is where expectations come into play. The disciples woke Jesus up expecting Him to do something - I'm not sure what they were expecting him to do, maybe tell them it would be okay, maybe for him to give them a clear direction for a way to get to the shore faster, I don't know- but what they WEREN'T expecting was Jesus to completely stop the storm. In the midst of chaos, winds shrieking, water spewing, panic flying all Jesus had to do was say stop and it was dead silent-still and peaceful. Now this BLEW the disciples away and you know why? Because it was beyond what they were expecting.

What would it look like to actually live in mystery and be blown away by Jesus? I can tell you what it'd look like it'd look pretty awesome. Like I said earlier when we don't have expectations everything seems to be better. So my challenge for you is to not have expectations and when you feel yourself start to day-dream or imagine how you think a situation is going to go or put expectations on yourself stop them and let Jesus work- let Him calm that storm.

Live in mystery - With all my love- Cam