Coping with Disappointment

Here's something I've been dealing with lately...disappointment. The past year has been filled with fear and anxiety, illness and death, depression and isolation. The few things that could have lifted our spirits, were cancelled or postponed. The general behavior of people was disappointing. A month ago we were singing about "God With Us," and today most people are back to focusing on everything but God. Many of us are relegated to our homes once again, and we sit in front of the computer or the TV, with phone in hand, complaining about the world around us, preaching to those who will listen, or reading, watching and seething with every bit of news or opinion we encounter. 

My morning meditation guide (in an app I use daily), said that disappointment takes the place in our heart, that HOPE once held. I was encouraged to tell God my disappointments, give them to him, and ask if there's something he might give to me in exchange. That visual helps me to name my disappointments, and to let go of them. Honestly, there's not much I can do with them but to feel sad. 

I hate the ease with which Satan drives people apart from each other, so that we're labeling those we don't understand, instead of listening to one another in search of commonality. He tells us that those who don't agree with us don't "understand," or that they're believing false news reports...in essence, they are not as smart or as enlightened as we are. Or, he convinces us that we must be louder, ruder, more destructive to get the attention we need to promote change. He works through malicious groups to further stir the pot of aggression and broaden the labels already in place. He deceives all of us into seeing other people as the enemy, instead of him. Oh, our minds are far too distracted by the physical world we can see, to even consider the spiritual world we don't see. We are too busy worrying about our family, health, job, future, government, safety, fears, image, cause, country, etc., to seek God's kingdom and his righteousness, to seek His purpose for the talents and resources he's given each of us, and his reason for putting us where we are, here and now. The problems we focus on are so overwhelming,  they make us feel small and helpless. What could I, one person with no power, possibly do to make this world better?

Maybe it would do my heart and soul good to just spend time with God, and ask him, Lord, what would you have me do, today? Place on my heart your purpose for my being here and now. Show me how you would have me use the gifts you've given me, to reflect your glory to those around me. Can we just take a minute to do that? To see "God with us," and choose to be with him? To let him comfort us, calm our spirits...to hand him all that disappointment and let him replace it with hope?