Hope vs. Expectations

I postponed this a in April of 2005 with the intention of finishing, but I'm too lazy. Sorry it took so long, Patrick.

It dawned on me today that there lies a fine line between having hope and having expectations. While the two seem to go hand in hand, they are definitely not interchangable terms. Hope is gracefuland leaniant, while expectations are much more strict.

When going into a situation or relationship with high expectations for how it will turn out, the focus seems to be too much on fulfilling those expectations rather than just "going with the flow" of things. With expectations you set yourself up for a harder fall.

There is such freedom in the word "hope". A graciousness that seems like it will never let us down. In hope, we never know how something will turn out, but long for the best the entire time. It is not in vain or pride.

Hope strengthens, expectations are a result of confidence. This relationship reminds me of a passage from 1 Corinthians 8:1 which says, "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." Knowledge produces expected outcomes. We think we know someone or something and we expect cirtain things out of them. But when these people or things don't deliver as expected, we are dissapointed. Our knowledge is shattered, because it turns out that we don't know it/them like the back of our hand. And for many, thats an unwanted reality check. God is saying, "you don't know everything. Stop pretending like you do." and when we can accept that, we can respond with "So help me. Teach me. Show me how to approach this or deal with this."