I’ve caught over 20 Marlin in my life. Some big. Some small. One 610 pounds off the rugged Kona Coast on Hawaii’s Big Island. Memories of peering into the deep cobalt come rushing back to me often, usually when I’m having trouble being EXPECTANT.
You see, I was ALWAYS expecting to catch a marlin when my dad and I went out on the hunt.
When I’m having trouble finding expectations that match what God would want, I start thinking about those marlin and the conversations I had with my dad as the 37-foot Bertram elegantly pranced on the pearlescent blue dance floor. I cherished those chats with the sweet smell of diesel soaking into my soul to be recalled years later…forever, really.
I do not mourn the lack of clarity when I struggle with expectations. I celebrate the gift of waiting for God to paint a new picture on a fresh canvas. Did I worry today? A little. But under similar circumstances much earlier in my life and walk with Christ I would have collapsed in worry and fear. But not today because God has taught me to wake up EVERY DAY WITH UNCOMPROMISED EXPECTATIONS..
The notion of living each day EXPECTING God to speak and act is exhilarating. It reminds me that we can’t be full of hope when we’re wracked with worry trying to drive through life’s fear fog. Worrying destroys our potential in Christ. Worry makes it impossible to be content with what we have. It enlarges everything beyond reality and reduces life to managing each day’s circumstances.
Just writing those words makes me sad. I don’t want to think like that. I don’t want to live like that. And if I can avoid that fate today, I can avoid it any day. So can you.
It’s an incredible feeling to relax in the middle of life’s vortex and laugh at the fascinating theater unfolding in front of us. Of course it’s a daunting challenge to live God’s “quiet life” in chaos that has the temptation to worry knocking on our door every day to see if we’ll succumb. To see if we’ll miss the sun rising in the morning and its fade to black into the serene night sky. To see if we’ll miss God’s comforting hand resting on our back.
As I lay here with my laptop perched on two somewhat uncertain knees, the victims of a football career, the Big Brother TV show is droning on in the background and all I can hear are people maneuvering and manipulating. How fitting. It’s tempting for me to do that right now, too. But God says my expectations must be bigger than that. Fitting, indeed. In the end, it’s about trusting him and those eleven letters–EXPECTATION.
HOW ABOUT YOU?
What are you expecting to happen in your life today? How does that match up with what God would want you to expect? What would happen if you fully embraced the expectations which align with his glorious plan for your life?
Expectancy. Think about it today.
