Expectations

by
Brian Waple

I’ve been reading a book called “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”, by Brian Selznick.  The story is about how Hugo, a young boy working in a train station in Paris, finds a mechanical man which he believes can write a message left by his father.  After fixing the mechanical man, he winds the mechanical man up and waits for it to write the message.  However, instead of a message, the mechanical man draws a series of lines.  The lines make no sense.  Disappointed, Hugo gives up on the mechanical man and loses faith in what he thought the mechanical man could do.

But, in spite of Hugo’s disappointment, the mechanical man keeps drawing, as if being controlled by some unseen power.  As it turns out, the mechanical man draws an image from an old silent movie that Hugo’s father had described to him when Hugo was a very young boy.  Hugo didn't get what he thought he wanted or even expected - but what he got was even greater than he had imagined.

So, what does this story have to do with our spiritual growth in Christ?  Often, we have expectations about what we think God should be doing in our lives.  We do all the things that we think are expected of us, and then when things don’t happen as we expect, we become disappointed and lose faith in what God can do.

Thankfully, God keeps working in spite of our disappointment.  We serve a perfect Lord, and His plan for us is perfect...“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)  As much as He loves us, He is not working to bring about the fulfillment of our expectations or our timetable.  His primary desire is a relationship with us.  As we draw closer to Him and learn to know Him better, He draws us closer into the love relationship He desires to have with us.

But this takes time...actually, it takes a lifetime.  It takes a lifetime of abandoning our own desires and making ourselves fully available to His presence and calling.  It is a transformation that makes us more and more like Christ.  And that reality is something beyond our wildest and best imagination.  “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)