A little confession, I’ve been dealing with some disappointment this week. My friend Moussa has been traveling to come see me since last Friday. He left Ottawa on a train at 4:30 Friday morning heading to Montreal to catch his flight to Dallas. He made it to New York, but of course was caught in the I.T. meltdown so many others have been having to contend with. He ended up having to spend the night in NYC unexpectedly. He flew into LaGuardia, but the flight he finally was able to get was to fly out of JFK. He had to make his way across town, find a hotel and then get to JFK early the next day. He finally was able to get a flight to Atlanta, but then again was delayed, delayed, delayed…CANCELED! Ugh. He was told he had a flight on Saturday afternoon, then Saturday evening, then late Saturday night…then CANCELED! It looked like he’d get a flight out on Sunday morning, but no, canceled. Then a flight for Sunday afternoon, nope. Canceled. Monday morning was looking good, nada. Canceled. We think he’s going to get a flight on Tuesday. We’re hoping so.
Both Moussa and myself are frustrated and anxious beyond measure. Its been quite the ordeal, and we have been set square in the middle of disappointment city.
What do we do? How do we cope? When hope gives way to disappointment, it seems frustration and anger aren’t far behind. It would be easy to scream, “WHY ME, GOD?” That’s an understandable response, right? When bad things happen to us, we want to respond in exactly that way. It seems to me the underlying supposition in shouting out that question is, it shouldn’t happen to us because we’re so good, it should happen to someone else not so good. In Matthew 5:45, Jesus tells us God “causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Our belief and attempts at righteousness provide no protection against the vagaries of our lives. Because God loves us, doesn’t mean we won’t face disappointments, problems, tragedies, or setbacks.
The Psalmist knew this all too well. In Psalm 27:13-14 we read, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” In other words, even when we are feeling like life is handing us our hat, if we remain strong in our faith and knowledge of God’s goodness and mercy, we will see our way through our circumstances. Or in Psalm 34:17-19 we find “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” God is walking with us in the midst of our frustrations and disappointments. Eventually, maybe not when we are wanting or desiring it, but God DOES deliver us. One of my very favorite passages comes from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians 4:8-9…“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” I know when the real crushing disappointments come, I know and believe I am sitll not defeated. God is with me and even in those times, together we will conquer whatever we come up against.
Well, just got word, Moussa’s flight for Tuesday got canceled yet again. He said he was praying this morning before leaving, and had a word from the Lord that the flight would be canceled. He told our friend he’s staying with, he felt the flight was going to be canceled. I know he’s tired, and frustrated, and disappointed, and yet he remains faithful to staying in touch with God. He knows, as all of us know, God will not leave us or forsake us. So even when those crushing, bruising, deflating times come, we can stand tall knowing God is with us through it all.
Your companion on the Way,
Pastor Tom