Expectations

Had I not had such high expectations, it probably would have been a lot better. When it was announced that there would be an opportunity to ice skate on the front lawn of our college campus, I bought my ticket and cleared my schedule for Thursday-night-winter-wonder-land-fun! Looking back, the whole event would have been a lot more exciting if I hadn't expected real ice, real skates, and an arena bigger than my dorm room. When I first saw the little ice skate patch made of white puzzle pieces, I let out a sigh of disappointment and began to wonder if my ticket was worth the five dollars that I paid for it. However, after overcoming the initial shock of disappointment, my friends and I got out there on our funny skates, slipped and slid around for thirty minutes like clumsy penguins, and had the time of our lives doing it.

My intention in telling this simple, silly story is not to complain about the ice skating; it was rather fun and hilarious - something I'll always remember. My winter-wonder-land-evening taught me about the impact of expectation.

I tend to be a person of high expectations, always expecting the best out of people and circumstances. Sometimes, situations exceed my expectations. But often, like with the ice skating endevour, the events and happenings of my life fall short of what I expected in the first place. Sometimes, high expectations are a risky business...unless you are talking about God!

Although people may fall short of my expectations, although circumstances may not live up to what I thought they would be, and although the ice skating rink wasn't really real, there is one person that won't let me down. I probably don't expect enough out of God, but limit His power and ability by my own human understanding. But one thing is sure - God is able to accomplish things that immeasurably exceed our expectations.

When God does something amazing, wonderful, unbelievable, surprising, or phenomenal, I often smile to myself and ask myself, how could I expect anything less?!

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