Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.

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Looking at the thunderstorm outside, my mind tells me that this is going to be another wet weekend and I probably couldn’t mow my lawn again due to the wetness on the ground. The persistent wetness from the past month is very likely to affect the long awaiting foliage in the area per expert’s forecast. I will be quite disappointed if this year’s foliage turns out to be not what we expected as previous years. In the past, my family has been enjoying the beautiful foliage scenery a lot – we used to visit Vanderbilt Mansion or Minnewaska State Park during this foliage season.

Expectation is a confident belief or strong hope that a particular event will happen; it is also a mental image of something expected; or, a standard of conduct or performance expected by or of somebody, according to the Encarta dictionary. A confident belief or strong hope is the key to define the expectation. Without them, we can only “wish” or “aspire” and it contains so much doubt and uncertainty. When we expect something to happen or expect a standard of conduct or performance by somebody, we already have some prior knowledge or experience. For instances, you expect sun will rise and will set tomorrow; or, accident can be expected when drive a car on the road without good brakes; or, you expect someone will arrive on time because he /she used to be punctual; or, you expect God will love you because the Bible tells you so.

Expectation can lead to either satisfaction or disappointment – in general, correct expectation would give you satisfaction while incorrect expectation would lead you to disappointment, except some rare occasions. At my work place, we have this Personal Business Commitment set each year with our managers to evaluate our performance. Managers are “expecting” us to achieve the commitments that were set forth. Apart from some unknown “political” reasons, this normally would render a fair evaluation at the end of year – either meets / exceeds, or, above / beyond commitment, etc. At that time, you can be either satisfied or disappointed. 🙂

It seems to me disappointment is common in our life. There is an old saying, “人生不如意的事，十常八九”. It teaches the sentiment of fate and acceptance. But it also hints us a lesson that, if I may, incorrect expectation would be reason to disappointment. Below is a story that I read before:

One day, a person saw a book, titled “How to Hug”, inside the window of a bookstore. He thought this is a book dealing with psychology, teaching people how to hug and how to improve mutual relationship, etc. Without further checking, he entered the bookstore and purchased one for himself. Back to home, he was eager to open it and read it. To his disappointment, he found out that this is just one of the volumes in an encyclopedia – starting from letter “How” to letter “Hug”. 

From the story, we saw that he was disappointed because the book is not what he was expecting. His disappointment is certainly connected to his incorrect expectation.

My dear brothers and sisters, as we were set apart by God, let me post a question, “What are expectations from this world and from our God?”  Simply, if someone comes to a church with an expectation that church is a warm, loving and spiritual place but didn’t feel it, he / she would be disappointed; if someone is in contact with a Christian with an expectation that Christian would be caring and loving with good deeds but didn’t see it, he / she would be disappointed too. I think we all know God’s expectation from us – to be molded like His son, Jesus Christ. May the following familiar verses serve as an encouragement and reminder to all of us.

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 你們在外邦人中、應當品行端正、叫那些毀謗你們是作惡的、因看見你們的好行為、便在鑒察的日子、〔鑒察或作眷顧〕歸榮耀給　神。(1 Peter 2:12)

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. 你們若有彼此相愛的心、眾人因此就認出你們是我的門徒了。(John 13:35)