Sometimes our aspirations are extremely high. A follower of Jesus should have very high goals, a very high sense of the promises coming true. Often our realities are in a low place, however, where our aspirations seem impossible to achieve. What happens if there’s this huge gap between the two?
Maybe your aspirations are similar to mine. I want to be engaged in a deep relationship with my wife. I want my four kids to be brilliant, loving, following Jesus, being successful in life and loving their neighbors as themselves. I want to wake up every early morning to seek the Lord. These are my high aspirations.
My reality, however, sometimes is “Man, I’ve just disappointed my wife. I just got cranky at my neighbor. I just overate. I just slept until 10:00 a.m. because I pushed the snooze button 100 times.” I believe that most people want a different life than the one they’re living, but they grow discouraged because they never achieve their dreams.
After a long season of hardships, you start to see a breakthrough. You feel hopeful that things will change for the better; then all of a sudden, you’re back in your old patterns. You start seeing some victory, then the victory seems lost. Or perhaps you seem to be overcoming, but then you’re being overwhelmed and dragged under by the current of life. You feel like you’re on this roller-coaster of ups and downs because you’re being disappointed and not ultimately achieving the things that God has for you.
There’s this vast gulf between the dream you’ve hoped for and the reality of where your life is currently. Now when we’re disappointed or discouraged, we could just lower our aspirations. We could stop dreaming or praying for certain things because we’ve been hurt so many times.
We should have high expectations, though, about the things that God has promised us or said to us. If we’ve been wounded in the past and are struggling to pursue God’s calls, remember that we’re continually healing. This is a journey we’re on all of life. We should strive for clarity about what God has called us to; we should examine our expectations and see if they’re self-serving or a thing God is calling us to or placed on our hearts. Where he guides, he provides.