Facing Disappointment

It's difficult when we come face to face with reality and realize how disappointed we've become with certain things. The human mind has the keen ability to paint an illusion before our eyes that behind what we believe to be there stands disappointment. And when we do come around to seeing the truth, the disparity is often times so great that we're just left speechless and in tears of how things have become. In our lives, we can't run away from disappointment. And I question why is that? Why do we become disappointed? I offer the notion that it is sometimes because of our self-righteousness that leads us to disappointment.

disappointment - a feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your expectations are not realized
self-righteous - exhibiting pious self-assurance

The correlation lies when we believe ourselves to be better than who we really are. Majority of the people in the world picture themselves to be a certain type of person -- an expectation. This in it of itself is good when we strive at it and work at it to become a person that we can respect. However, more often than not, our pride kicks in and tells us we're already there -- our self-righteousness. Now take this simple example and apply it to many more of the important areas in life, and you can easily see why it's so hard for us to face disappointment.

Wouldn't this be a terrible if our lives were just one disappointment after another? And time after time, we turn our heads to look at the cross, and we find the comfort and answers we seek. The self-righteousness in us is replaced by the righteousness that's given to us through the death of Christ. And with God's righteousness in us, there is no disappointment. God's expectations for us is repentance and faith -- the very foundation of our beliefs. And when we come to Him in that attitude, there is no disappointment. There is only forgiveness, and through Him, we are made new.