Expectation and Hope

In general I'm a hopeful person, meaning I wait expectantly for God to work in things to come. This is a good thing. But in general I'm also an expectant person, meaning that I have expectations of things and people, and they are usually high expectations. Herb and I talk about this all of the time because he has high expectations of media (movies, music, TV shows) whereas my high expectations tend to be of people around me.

One of the topics we've discussed in Bible study often this year is the danger of high expectations. High expectations of people will often lead to disappointment and thus bitterness because people are imperfect and bound to fall short. When we expect from others we are in relationship with we put ourselves out there, vulnerable and open to a let down. But I've been growing confused on this particular area of expectation.

I'm beginning to believe that it is not about eliminating high expectations, or our expectations of others. Based on the definition of hope God asks us to wait expectantly on Him. Now I know God is perfect and thus He will not disappoint (or at least in the heavenly sense He won't disappoint--on earth we may not be able to see what He's doing at the time), but I don't wonder if God wants us to wait expectantly on others as well.

God wants us to believe in the inherent good of others, to love them imperfections and all. So wouldn't it make sense that we should believe others will come through? Shouldn't we believe that although people have fallen short in the past, they may just pull it off this time? This kind of belief in others, while hopeful, still opens us up to disappointment. I propose the difference isn't so much in what we expect from others but rather in our response to them when they are unable to follow through: grace and mercy.

Think about it, God knowing all of our flaws and even all of our outcomes, still waits expectantly for us to do the right thing. He believes in our inherent goodness (as a result of our connection to Him) and trusts that it will win through. One of the many differences between God and us is His response to our failures. When He waits expectantly and we fall short, grace and mercy step in. He gives us room to try again and He relieves the pain and consequence of our failure. I propose that this is really what He wants from us; rather than self-protecting by lowering our expectations of others, He wants us to exercise mercy and grace in disappointment. I admit, the self-protection would be much easier, but since when is God calling us to easy? This "method" stretches us in asking us to hope, to love, to offer grace, to offer mercy--sounds like a growing experience to me.

Hope is hard because it requires us to believe when there might not be much of a chance or reason to believe. It opens us up for inordinate pain when things don't happen the way we expect. But I have to believe hope is better. It requires us to live life focused on what could be, on how God has the ability to work, on the endless possibilities within man. God is our living hope and I believe hope is the best way to allow Him to "live" in us.