Every day I have expectations. I expect things to go a certain way. I expect that if I do the right thing, then good things will follow. I expect if I treat people in a respectful way, then they will respect me. I expect that if I anticipate others needs, they will do the same for me. If I accidentally mess up, I expect they will understand it was just a mistake. Even if I don’t say it out loud. In everything I do, I expect a particular outcome.

Wow. That’s a lot of ‘I’s.

In that paragraph there is not much that rings of Jesus. No sympathy. No empathy. No room for what anyone else is going through, doing, or experiencing. Nothing that meets people where they are at. Everything is focused on people meeting me where I’m at. When I say it out loud, it seems so selfish, but I do it every day. I have expectations of how my day is going to go, but when it goes differently, I’m left with disappointment, anger, and pain. I’m left with a discrepancy. Really, I’m left with anxiety. Even if it isn’t the heart-racing, panic type emotions that the word anxiety typically exudes, it is still a separation between what I expected and what is reality. That separation, that unmet expectation, is defined as anxiety. 100%.

The hope of the righteous brings joy,
but the expectation of the wicked will perish.
Proverbs 10:28 (ESV)

This talk of expectation brought me to this verse out of Proverbs. While it is easy to focus on the words righteous and wicked, let’s pause for a moment and focus on the words hope and expectation. The proverb uses two completely different words here. It is of course an oversimplification, but I can’t help but notice the choice of words pointing to the wicked having expectations while the righteous have hope. It’s a lens issue.

If we approach our day with hope instead of expectation, there is no room for anxiety. No room for that discrepancy. It allows us to have grace for others and for ourselves in our day. It allows room for God to work and not put Him in a box of expectation. (i.e. we expect that God will show up and do this or that.) It’s the opposite. It allows us to see that God is in control, and we are releasing our day to Him. Most of all, it allows us to leave our burdens at the cross (completely entrusting them to Him), to free us to be the hands and feet of Jesus. To be a tool of His to reach others, instead of trying ineptly to fix our own mess. To experience life through the lens of those around us instead of through our own that is so often distorted by our expectations.

Father - I pray to you now that your would open my eyes to the expectations I put on myself and those around me everyday. Would you replace those expectations with hope? Allow me to see the world through the lens of those around me with hope, instead of my own distorted lens of expectations and anxiety. I trust my day to you, so I can be your emissary on whatever you are calling me into. In Jesus’ Name - Amen.