Great expectations
We have high expectations for life, don't we? But how much of what we expect is actually guaranteed? We also expect a lot from the people we share life with...but how fair are those expectations? We set ourselves up for a lot of disappointment when we put our hope in things that are not promised. Letting go of our expectations can be painful...especially when things change suddenly. But over time it will produce a greater joy than we could have expected. John Piper describes this transition as the birth of a new joy. "The first joy dies. It's a real death, and that death is painful. That wonderful joy disappears. It's gone. All that joy is struggling like a little seed to push its way up through rocks of disappointment and fear and sorrow. There are days, and weeks, and maybe months of transition from the death of one joy to the full flower of another joy, and those are not easy days. They require enormous patie...