Hopes and Expectations

It was a perfect day for a bikeride. I have spent the past two days nearly non-stop on the final edit of my first fiction book. I have been working on it for a year, while simultaneously working on The Tower Builder, that was just published. All that's left is to review the proof when all the files are approved. Anyway, my eyes were weary from all the meticulous reading/editing of the "endgame" getting a book ready. And the weather was clear, not too hot, and low humidity. Off to see the world from my bike!

I pedaled to the greenway near our house. It was very peaceful and quiet. There were a few families out strolling but it was largely deserted -- so much so that a deer was grazing alongside the bike path! Every so often, I would stop and pluck a few blackberries from the many ripening bushes along the path. I was really enjoying the silence when suddenly I heard the unmistakable sounds of a toddler in meltdown. As I passed the little family, a mom and dad, the wailing toddler and a baby in a carriage, the baby began shrieking. The parents looked harried.

Oh how I remember those days! I would take the children out for a wonderful, healthy, fresh-air activity with all the best intentions in the world. And pretty soon they were too hot, too tired, too hungry, too bored, and too _________________fill in the blank. The happy faces of the first few minutes would all dissolve into tears, and I would be wondering how all my good intentions could go so terribly awry.

Welcome to life. I think most of us approach it with good intentions and are filled with hope for glorious outcomes. Rarely, even perhaps never does it go the way we expect.  The Bible has a lot to say about expectations, because God knows we have hopes and dreams, and He also knows that from a worldly perspective, they will often (if not always) be dashed to smithereens. But He reminds us in His word that His plans for us will always lead to our welfare, to a future, to hope, to joy, and ultimately, to the Honor and Glory of God Himself.

I look back on the years with my young children with fondness and nostalgia. I don't remember the dashed plans as much as I do the intensity of my love and hopes for them. I wanted to shout to the family, "Take heart! It gets easier!" but instead I biked on, because that statement is not really true...but I was thanking God for the struggles that always lead me back to Him.

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Jeremiah 29:11 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 23:18 

Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

Proverbs 10:28 

The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 62:5 

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

Proverbs 24:14 

Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

Philippians 1:20 

As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.