Pain. Suffering. Adversity. Hardship. You name it, we experience it. So much of it is out of our control. Money won’t stop cancer. A great health insurance plan is no guarantee against a car accident. The best cardiac surgeon won’t make you immune to a lethal heart attack. Much of the difficulty we experience in this life is out of our control.
But there is one thing we do control that can either make our lives better or more difficult. That one thing can be summed up in a single word: expectations.
What are your expectations for this life? Sometimes I wonder if we expect this life to be better than is realistic or even biblical. Here’s the problem: the higher our expectations for this life, the more difficult suffering will be. Because if your greatest hope is this life here on earth, threats to this life will crush you. But if your greatest hope is NOT for this life, but for the life to come, threats to this life while difficult, will not cripple you. If your greatest hope is the life to come, you’ll find yourself buoyant even when this life attempts to drag you to the bottom.
Set your expectations high for the life to come and long for it! “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20)
