hope and expectation

We were talking about expectations a few days ago in a group setting (as a result of reading Luke 7 where Jesus asks: what were you expecting?[1]). I have come to the conclusion that in most cases, expectations are not a good thing. I voiced this opinion, but I could see that others did not agree, so I tried to explain the difference that I see between expectations and hope.

Picture a scenario: Dean is coming home after a business trip (as he actually was on the night of this discussion).

Hope, to me, is a buoyancy that comes from knowing I will soon see Dean. I am looking forward to meeting him, to having him back at home, but I have not written a scenario in my head about how it will happen.

Expectation would have me imagine the two of us seeing each other from across the airport, running into each other's arms, and murmuring loving phrases that set my heart aflutter and bring gasps of ooohhh and aaaahhh when I retell the story of our reunion.

Hope just knows that at some point, Dean will come, and that is more than enough. His plane may be late or early, he might have a hold-up at customs, he might even miss a connection or arrive sans luggage. He may be energetic and upbeat, or tired, sweaty, and hungry. I don't know the details and I don't spend any time trying to guess what they will be. I focus my attention on Dean, the one I love, not on what he will say or do when I see him.

Expectation gets hung up on the details. It wants a flashy entrance, a gift, a romantic "I love you," a gesture of affection, maybe a light shining above us and a choir singing in the background, something that will make the occasion memorable and special and ideal. Expectation is easily disappointed when its demands are not met.

Hope just beams! It buoys up my spirit and shines with the glow of anticipation because Dean is coming. How and exactly when this will happen is out of my control, but I know that Dean's will is set in my direction, and I am waiting for him. More than waiting for him, I am going to meet him. And when he arrives, I will happily receive him and everything that comes with him, because it is him!

Here's how it actually happened: Dean's plane was late, but his luggage did arrive with him. Excellent! I was waiting in the car in the arrival pick-up lane when I saw him walking towards me. Yes, my heart jumped when I caught my first glimpse of him, even though he had only been gone for 3 days! His first words were, "What is this?" referring to the snow that had appeared since his departure. It made me laugh! He also brought me two wonderful and unexpected gifts, one of which was an Elvis/Nixon t-shirt that I wore to an 80s Christmas party 4 days later. The other was a case of Diet Dr. Thunder, one of my all-time favourite drinks! On the way home, we went to a McDonald's drive-thru to get him something to eat because it was after midnight and he had not had supper. I gave him money to buy a burger wrap!

These details may not sound very exciting to you, but I remember them all because they were important to me. Why? Because I did them with Dean!

This is a photo of some of Dean's work shirts that are waiting, hoping to be ironed.

[1] For my blog on expectations based on Luke 7, click here.

Names of God

The Hebrew word "YHWH" (read from right to left) This past Sunday I gave a talk on the Names of God, the beginning of a series on this topic. This first talk was to be a gentle introduction so I thought it wouldn't take too many hours of preparation. Well, I quickly discovered that the research is almost bottomless; every time I thought I had a somewhat definitive list of names, I found another source which added a few more or gave a different twist on some of the names I had already come across. After several hours I was getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data (and that was only looking at the Hebrew Bible). I wondered how I could present this to people in an orderly and accessible fashion and within a reasonable time frame. Not everyone is up for a 3-hour lecture crammed full of detail on a Sunday morning. So I took a break and spent a bit of time meditating on this problem and asking the Spirit for guidance. And then I thought that being overwhelmed by Go...

Esther's protest

I have been hesitant to write anything here pertaining to the student protests in Montreal, partly because I didn't believe I had any solutions to offer and partly because I just wanted to stay out of the controversial mess it has become. Besides, I have studying to do. But this weekend, something changed. I read the book of Esther. First, some background: the unrest started early in the year when a group of students decided to protest the tuition hikes proposed by the Quebec government ($325 a year for the next 5 years). Seeing that tuition rates have been frozen for almost ten years, it seemed reasonable to the government to increase them to reflect rising costs. This did not sit well with some students, and they organised an ongoing protest in which students were encouraged to boycott classes and refuse to hand in assignments. It has now grown into a movement which has staged several organise...

it's a mad mad mad world (of theology)

The mad dash for the end of term has begun. I have finished all my required readings and have jumped into research reading. One of my papers is on the madness of theology (the correlation seems more obvious to some of us than to others). Truly inspiring stuff, I am finding. Let me share a few quotes here: There is a certain madness in Christianity – in a desert God who is jealous and passionate, in a saviour who speaks in apocalyptic terms, in a life of sacrificial love, in the scandal of particularity. In principle, a confessional theology should bear the mark of this madness, but the mark or wound must constantly be renewed. - Walter Lowe, "Postmodern Theology" in The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology , 2007. “In the Scriptures the odd phenomena constituting the ‘Kingdom of God’ are the offspring of the shock that is delivered by the name of God to what is there called the ‘world,’ resulting in what I call a ‘sacred anarchy.’ C...

outWORD by Matte Downey

Search This Blog