Waiting For Christmas Series

In 563 BC, a son was born to a ruler in India. The local astrologers predicted he would

either be a great ruler or a world renowned ascetic. His father wanted to prevent that, so he

sheltered his child from all contact with suffering of any kind. The little prince was to never

see life's sorrows. But as he grew up he defied his father and slipped out of the palace to see

life on the outside. What he saw was a shock. People were poor and sick and old and there

was hardship and suffering everywhere. He began to search for why this was and the

conclusion he came to has influence millions. This prince was Buddha the founder of

Buddhism.

He concluded that the whole problem with human beings was there desire. They set their

hearts on to many things and expect the future to fulfill their hopes. This leads to inevitable

disappointment and misery. The solution if quite simple, just eliminate desire. If you aim for

nothing that is likely what you will get. But you won't be disappointed because that is just

what you expected-nothing.

Buddhism is a negative religion where the goal is Nirvana, which means extinction. It is

the elimination of all desire, hope and anticipation. The closer you can come to this in life, the

greater saint you are. To be detached from all things and people so that you no longer care if

they are destroyed or die, the better off you are. You can't be disappointed if you desire

nothing. This sounds awful and depressing to us maybe, but we have to face this reality, there

is a measure of truth in it. Desire to be like God led Adam and Eve to fall and much of the sin

and folly in the Bible is due to illegitimate desires.

Ruel Howe in his book, The Creative Years, tells of the bright outgoing young woman who

collapsed on the eve of her wedding day. She got more and more depressed and tried to take

her own life. She had to be put in a mental hospital where she continued to deteriorate. She

sat in a corner and refused to respond in any way. This went on for weeks and months and all

she did was sit crumpled in a corner, a symbol of living death.

An artist working on a portrait of the superintendent heard about her and asked to see

her. He took a piece of moist clay and began to work with it in front of her. He did this for

weeks and finally one day she reached out for the clay. Some weeks later she began to try to

mold it. She became frustrated that she could not do it and in anger hurled the clay against

the wall. She then looked in terror at the artist to see his reaction. He just picked it up and

brought it back to her and said, "It's all right, I still like you." Then she spoke her first words

in many months-"You still like me!" That was the turning point, and from then on she made

rapid progress in her recovery.

They were finally able to figure out what had gone wrong. It was a simple case of excessive

expectation. She was bright and talented and her parents wanted her to be popular and to

succeed in every endeavor. She worked her heart out and became cheerleader, homecoming

queen and valedictorian. When she faced the expectations of marriage and the added

demands of a husband, it was an overload on her spirit. She broke and retreat into sickness

in order to escape.

Buddha was right, all of this misery was due to hopes and desires. By expecting less

everyone involved in this true story could have experienced more joy and less sorrow. Those

who expect to much and who desire perfection are doomed to disappointment in a fallen

world. Buddha had a point but he took it to far. To anticipate an expect nothing would have

been to waste the gifts of this girl and rob her of the potential of being what she could be.

Somewhere between expect everything and expect nothing there is a place for expect

something.

About the same time that Buddha was teaching his desire nothing philosophy, there was a

prophet called of God to take a message to his people. Haggai was his name and

encouragement was his game. The people had come back from Babylon to rebuild the temple

with high expectations. But their enthusiasm was soon shattered. The Samaritans so

hindered the work that the project was abandoned. The cities were in ruins and the land was

a mess and their neighbors were hostile. They came back with high hopes of peace and