Finding Hope in Unmet Expectations and Shared Stories

when we are little we are born with what researchers sometimes call pre-reflective optimism we think we're going to get the day we want we think we're going to get our desire satisfied we think we're going to get our stories and it's just kind of a naive assumption when my grandson was very little and and would wake up in his crib uh he was the child of quite passionate coffee Drinkers and somewhere along the line he got this idea he would raise himself up on his little feet and hold on to the bars of The Cribs and cry out I want beans I want beans and he was quite certain that beans would come to him we think it's part of the way that we're born that we're going to get the story the life that we want the Desir is fulfilled and then sooner or later that pre reflective optimism begins to wear off because we run up against what Sigman Freud called the reality principle and we discover the reality was not designed to meet our needs and give us pleasure [00:01:07]

the Bible says actually that creation itself is somehow broken that the story itself has gone wrong for reasons that have to do with the Human Condition and that run very deep and that God is is not done with our story yet and so God creation itself Paul writes in Romans 8 very deep Reflections creation itself has been subjected to frustration that means nobody gets the story they want creation has been subjected to frustration not by its own will not according to its own accord but by the will of the one who subjected it that is God in Hope in Hope in Hope that somehow in the midst of pain and Brokenness and hurt and uh disappointed optimism we will turn to God and creation itself will be redeemed [00:02:15]

I didn't get the story I wanted is both a line of great pain and I know from talking with many of you that there is a lot of pain over the stories that we didn't get and yet at the same time it's line in which somehow there is hope and even now we get little glimpses I think of uh how some in some way through the deepest pain that I have gone through there are conversations that happen there are holy moments of connection with people that I would not be experiencing if it were not for getting the story that I didn't want to get [00:03:11]

so in The Fellowship of the withered hand in the place where we can't but God can we think we'll let him um we hear each other's stories and I want to invite you to tell your story we're providing a link for that I don't understand why this is I'm I just know that it's true when you are with another person and they tell you a story they tell you their story and it's a story where there is need and where there is hurt and where there is suffering and when there is failure and God is somehow in all those things when we tell our stories healing comes and God is present in a told story [00:03:53]

the great ones who have gone before us did not get the story they wanted and in particular that the characters of scripture and especially those who are called by God don't get a story that they were born with pre-reflective optimism hoping for I want beans I want beans Moses lives for 40 years in the desert and then has to go and confront the most powerful man in the world and tell him that he's losing his labor force and then lead a stick NE stiff necked people through the Wilderness and never actually get to go to the promised land [00:04:45]

Jesus says to Peter in some of his final words to him when you were young you dressed yourself and you went where you wanted to go when you're old somebody else will dress you they will lead you where you do not want to go you will not get the story you wanted maybe the ultimate expression of this is the Apostle Paul and these are just remarkable words that I want to dwell on with you for a moment and you might think about your job description when you're thinking about a job there's the job that I want there is the Road contribution and success that I think will make me a happy and fulfilled person [00:05:30]

Paul had a story that he thought he was headed towards and then he got interrupted one day on the road to Damascus and he's reflecting on the story that he actually got uh and I want you to think about this description of this from a from a real person he talks about first of all kind of his credentials what set him up to think about the story get are they Hebrews so am I are they Israelites so am I are are they Abraham's descendants so am I are they Servants of Christ I'm out of my mind to talk like this he says I am more [00:06:08]

I have been impr prisoned more frequently I have been fogged more severely I have been exposed to death again and again five times I received the 40 Lashes minus one three times I was beaten with rods once I was pelted with stones three times I was Shipwrecked I spent a day and a night in the open sea I have been constantly on the move I have been in danger from rivers in danger from bandits in in danger from my own people in danger from Gentiles in danger in the city in danger in the country in danger at Sea in danger from false Believers [00:06:58]

I have labored and toiled and have often Gone without sleep I have known hunger and thirst and have often Gone without food I have been cold and naked besides everything else I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches who is weak and I do not feel weak who is led into sin and I do not inwardly burn and this man in constant danger hungry cold naked beaten flogged in prison burning anxious weak says rejoice in the Lord always I will say it again Rejoice he was not given the story that he wanted but the story that he didn't want changed the world [00:07:43]

if you do not get get the story that you want if it is hard if it looks bleak if you're sad if you're discouraged don't you give up there's another story at work and we haven't come to the end yet [00:09:03]