Purpose

Escaping Expectations

I know I’m not alone when I say I hate to disappoint people. Like many others, I have this tendency to want to make other people happy. Thankfully, I have friends in my life who help make sure that I don’t get too carried away. One such friend regularly reminds me to have a mental makeover in order to make sure that I’m doing things for others out of a spirit of generosity not obligation. It definitely helps me stay sane.

Because of my desire to try to please people, I often find myself attempting to lower expectations. In fact, given the opportunity, I try to disavow them all together. I don’t want someone else to think I can do something or be someone that I’m not sure I’ve progressed to. So I strive to lower the bar, to set other people’s eyes on what I’m fairly confident is achievable. It’s my way of managing other people’s potential disappointment.

Sometimes we do the same thing with God. Especially for those of us who are blessed with having been raised in a church, we usually have a fairly good understanding of what God expects from us and what He doesn’t. In fact, He intentionally makes it difficult to obscure. “Follow Me” is what He said to the disciples . . . and its what He still says to today.

The simplicity of Jesus’ instructions don’t make them palatable. We know that we should give up all rights to ourselves and we also know how much we want to do our own thing. We know we should love others with a greater magnitude than we love ourselves yet we find ourselves sitting in judgment. We try to tell God, “no, Lord, don’t send me.” because we’re not sure that we’re up to the task.

Expectations, however, only seek to define that which has not yet been determined. If we fail to live up to God’s expectations, He’ll find another way to accomplish His purpose. When we evade God’s expectations, we avoid the risk of failure and the reward of obedience.

We can’t escape the expectations of others. But when we run from God’s expectations for our lives we disavow our chance to be involved with His agenda and to be used for His renown.

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Growth

Status Symbol

My car has very few identifiable marks. There are no bumper stickers, no license plate frames, and certainly no vanity license to give even a hint of who the car might belong to. Maybe it’s a part of my desire to exude mystery and intrigue. Maybe I’m just lazy and cheap. Regardless of the reason my car is free from the adornment featured on many vehicles nowadays.

My musings on cars, and the lack of flashiness that mine possessed, occurred to me as I was spending another morning driving down the Orange County freeway. I’m not sure when cars become a canvas for furthering our personal expression but somewhere along the way they did. You can find out a lot about a person by reading their car. Often times you’ll learn a person’s political believes, favorite bands, religious adherence, sport team’s allegiance and even sometimes their brand choice for personal computers. An object that was intended to get us from Point A to Point B is now another opportunity to achieve status in the minds of the world. With it, we convey the groups that we belong to, espouse our personal philosophies and challenge others to disagree. It’s just another way that we advance our agenda. Even “Christian” bumper stickers are usually us-focused. They rarely convey the grace and justice of God. Instead, they are almost singularly about our religious experience.

It’s interesting to me that we use our cars to convey membership in a certain club, to express commitments to certain belief, but we rarely use our time to build relationships that could do the same. It’s almost like we want the car to speak for us, which of course it was never meant to do. It might convey status but it can never show love. It may identify membership but it can never illuminate grace. It may preach philosophies but it can never be a messenger of good news.

Using our cars as a status symbol, as way to further demonstrate our commitment to God is a good thing, but let us be wary less it become a substitution for the real thing.

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