peace . love . joy

How many of you have "role model(s)" in life? I myself have quite a few people that I look up to. I catch myself thinking "oh, I want to mature into someone as fun and creative and as close to God as this person" or "oh, I want to be as critical and intellectual as this person" or even sometimes "oh, I want to be as beautiful as this person"... You get the idea. These people, or person if you only have one, are basically possessors of certain characteristics that you wish to come into possession someday. They inspire you and encourage you and act as some sort of goal that you want to achieve. You spend time with these people, following in their footsteps, naturally, to hopefully get to where you think these people are. You imitate these people. You try to do as they do. All because you think it's worth it, you think it's going to get you where you want, to take on certain desirable characteristics.

It goes on smooth... But sometimes, you stop dead in your tracks of modelling yourself after that person whom you looked up to in the past. Suddenly, you realise, through further observations of that person, that that person's human after all with quite a few faults and shortcomings that you've probably never noticed before, but now that you realised it, it's quite a big thing. I reacted with an intense feeling of close-to-overwhelmingly-choking disappointment.

To suddenly lose a lot of respect for that person whom you've previously esteemed and venerated is... Hard. It's as though a huge chunk of you has suddenly come undone, like a jigsaw puzzle piece that had fitted nicely suddenly twists itself out of the completed portion and falls off the table. I term it "disappointment".

There are other circumstances where disappointment jumps up at the unsuspecting you like the big bad wolf in little red riding hood. Most of the time, it involves people and\or being let down.

I've recently had a bout with disappointment and I was talking it through with God. Whether or not I had the right to feel disappointed... And what should I do next.

While the feeling of disappointment has a tendency to dwell and enlarge itself in the disappointed, God calls us not to let that happen. Disappointment leads to discouragement, which in turn leads ultimately to dismay and absolute pessimism. These words do not remain as intangible emotion words. Instead, these translate into conscious actions and unconscious behaviors that most definitely will affect other people around.

Characters in the Bible too experienced disappointment. Psalm 31, 102 and 109 teach that while disappointment may grip the heart, the matter must not remain hidden in the heart, but poured out to the One who actually can do something about it - God. The world's best listener of all time, and did I mention, miracle-worker? He can cause the situation to change, but He can also cause your heart to change. He talks and walks us through it, our rod and our staff in the valley of death and darkness and fear.

Sometimes we react by asking "why, God?" Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with that question. But sometimes I think we get too caught up in seeking an answer, or blocking ourselves from the ugly truth of the matter, that we forget to ask another question that God could actually be answering instead: "what now, God?" It's hard to shift and adopt this perspective when we've been disappointed with circumstances, with people... But we pray and ask for His intervening Hand. We seek His wise council. We thank and praise Him for who He is.

Don't you see?

Disappointment leads to hope.

Hope for a better tomorrow, a better reaction in the next wrestle with disappointment, a "role model" to improve on character and tendencies, people to change for the better, an answered prayer.

And this increases faith in God.

Faith in His character, that He answers prayers, that He is God sovereign.

So when you deal with disappointment, don't keep it to yourself. Pour it out to the Father who cares, to the God who is powerful. Let it go. Ask good questions and always be open to listen to what the Lord has to say.

Disappointment leads to hope.
Disappointment leads to faith.