Jesus disappointed people.
Does that surprise you?
I’m not talking about the obvious, as in the religious leaders, Pharisees, Saducees, Zealots, etc. I’m talking about His own followers. To me that’s just mind bending. No one has ever done more for others, been more servant minded and shown more love and mercy than Jesus Christ.
No one. Period.
Yet those who followed Him were like human blackholes—sucking up everything they could get from Him and seldom giving back. Now I could show you example after example of this happening. It could be a hundred and eleven part blog series, but people’s disappointment and selfishness toward God will have to wait for another post. My focus this time is what Jesus did about it. And what He did, I’m ashamed to admit, I almost never do…
until now.
First what I did (and still do sometimes). Whenever I get wind that I’ve fallen short of someone’s expectations there is an immediate urge within me to “fix it.” Usually the disappointment entails not being there for every big or little event. So I redouble my efforts. Usually it comes down to leaving Michelle (my awesome wife) and the kids to go somewhere by themselves, finish the movie alone while I drive off, eat the rest of the special dinner while I pace the front yard on the phone, pray by themselves because I had an ‘emergency meeting.’
See a pattern here?
And the larger the church gets, the greater the expectations. And the harder I try to meet them. But a few years ago (thankfully) this all began to change and every now and again the Lord reminds me that it was something that needed to change. I can’t be there for everyone every time.
During His earthly ministry even Jesus disappointed people.
It has a little something to do with letting go of something good in order to do something else.
Something that is best.
Tune in tomorrow and I’ll prove it.