Christmas is a season not only of joy, but, if we’re honest, also of disappointment. Sometimes we’re disappointed with gifts. When Laura’s brother, Grayson, was in Middle School he received one such gift. To appreciate this you have to get the image in your mind of the entire family gathered around the Christmas tree. Kids, parents, and grandparents are there. One set of grandparents watched with delight as Grayson torn open the package from them. The open box revealed a brand new set of Superman Underoos. (In case you don’t remember those let me remind you what they were. Underoos were basically a T-shirt and a pair of underwear briefs decorated like the costume of your favorite superhero.) This would make a great gift … for a young boy. It’s not too cool for an adolescent on the verge of manhood. It was a disappointing gift to say the least. To make matters worse, the grandparents kept insisting that Grayson try them on right then and there.
Sometimes our disappointments during this time of the year go a bit deeper. As the New Year dawns we often assess our lives and conclude that it’s lacking. We’re not where we want to be financially or physically or spiritually. We still haven’t written the great American novel or learned to play the piano or taken a trip to Hawaii.
Sometimes, if we’re painfully honest, we feel disappointment with God. That relationship we’ve been praying for has not been restored. The sickness that we’ve been struggling with has not gone away. The people we’ve been desperate to see come to faith in Christ are more apathetic to spiritual things than the year before. The job didn’t come through. The church didn’t grow. That loved one died. Although we still have faith, we’re somewhat disappointed with God because life has not turned out as we expected.
There’s no sin in disappointment with God, but we do need to take care how we handle it. If we’re not diligent, disappointment can lead to despair or bitterness. We can become cynical and pessimistic always expecting the worst. Unchecked disappointment can rob us of our joy. It can also erect a roadblock to whatever God wants to accomplish in and through us.
As we enter into the Christmas season I want to share with you how to maintain your hope in the midst of your letdowns so those things want be true of you. Disappointments will come and we have the choice to let them bury us or buoy us. We can let them crush us or draw us closer to God. If we’ll do the latter, God will bless us with a gift that will not disappoint.
Maintaining HOPE in Midst of Your Letdowns
Zechariah and Elizabeth were well acquainted with disappointment. They entered their golden years childless. In our culture that’s not such a bad thing, but in Jewish society childlessness brought shame. It was one of the few reason for which a man was given the liberty to divorce his wife. Some of the rabbis taught a couple with no children had been cursed by God and would share no part in the resurrection. Practically speaking children were your social security and welfare net in the Jewish culture. The more you could produce, the more blessed you were considered to be.
There was a greater disappointment that Zechariah and Elizabeth shared with their people. Centuries earlier God had promised to establish the throne of King David as part of an everlasting kingdom. The Jews expected to rule the nations, but at this point in history they were subjugated under the yoke of the hated Romans. They’d been waiting hundreds of years for the promised Messiah to arrive and throw off their masters and re-establish the kingdom of God on earth. So far, no Messiah had come. Even worse, God gave no reason of explanation. By Zechariah and Elizabeth’s day the Jews had experienced God’s silence for 400 years. They were most certainly disappointed with God.
Yet, in their disappointment, they did not abandon hope. Neither Zechariah and Elizabeth nor a sizeable number of the Jews gave up on God. Here’s how they did it and our first lesson:
Hold on to the last thing God told you
Despite God’s 400 year silence, the nonappearance of the Messiah, and the subjugation of the Romans the Jewish people continued their traditions. They kept studying and practicing the Law of God, just as He told them to do. They scrupulously preserved the Old Testament by copying it generation after generation. Worship in the temple persisted for centuries, basically unchanged, because God had prescribed the ritual they were to follow.
In Luke’s gospel we find Zechariah participating in that long Jewish tradition. As a priest he served in the temple, perpetuating the sacrifices required by God’s Law. Because of their faithfulness to keep doing the last thing God told them to do God broke His 400 year silence, set in motion the events leading to the coming of the Messiah, and initiated the re-establishment of the throne of David through Jesus Christ.
It’s clear from the story that Zechariah and Elizabeth held on to the last thing God told them. When no child arrived on time they looked to the stories of their ancestors and kept doing what they did. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Manoah and his wife, Elkanah and Hannah were childless couples who persisted in seeking God and they received the thing they asked for. How do we know Zechariah and Elizabeth kept it up? The angel’s words tell us of their faith and action:
“Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. …And he will go on before the Lord … to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:13b, 17
Zechariah and Elizabeth held on. The Jewish people held on. Disappointments came and they made the choice to not to let them bury them, but to buoy them. Into this kind of faith, God brought a gift that would never disappoint.
Coming to Antioch I knew a turnaround would be difficult. The overwhelming majority of churches that decline to our level never recover. I told myself and others before taking this position that if God didn’t perform a miracle, the church would not survive. Yet, I believed He would do something significant otherwise I would have never left my former occupation. Well, suffice it to say, the results have been disappointing: no revival, no growth, limited passion for Christ so far. At times I’m tempted to let it bury me, but for the most part God keeps reminding me of the one thing He clearly told me to do. Pray! Get the church to pray! In seeking His face we will eventually encounter His hand of blessing if we’ll hold on.
You can apply this to your life when you face disappointment with God. Keep doing the last thing he told you to do. Hold on to the promises in His word. Hold on to promises He has whispered in that still, small voice. Keep doing the things the Bible calls people of faith to do and a gift will eventually arrive that will not disappoint.
Having said all this, let me add that sometimes the disappointments will lead to doubt despite your best efforts to hold on. When it happens, do everything in your power to …
Oppose the urge to doubt
Lingering on doubt can be dangerous. Just look at what happened to Zechariah. The angel appeared to him out of nowhere in a place where only priests and supernatural beings were allowed dwell. We know that Zechariah comprehended that it was an angel before him because he responded in the typical human fashion to such a creature: fear! What’s puzzling is Zechariah’s response to the promise of a son.
“How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” Luke 1:18
This response reminds me of a time back in the early 90s when Laura and I were watching the second of the original Batman movies. In it Batman fought his archenemy, the Penguin, a mutant with sharp teeth, a long, pointy nose, and flipper-like hands. Batman used all of his bat-gadgets to escape death on several occasions. He piloted a bat-jet through the sewers shooting missiles. In the end, the Penguin’s plot to destroy Gotham City was thwarted and the villain died in a pool of toxic waste. As we watched the conclusion, a group of gigantic, real penguins carried the villain’s body away in a funeral procession. At that point, Laura and I turned to each other and said, “How stupid!” Never mind the fact that the entire movie is extremely unrealistic. Somehow the penguin funeral scene was just too much.
I look at Zechariah’s response the same way. A supernatural being appeared in the Holy of holies after 400 years of God’s silence to announce the coming of the Messiah through his child and he asked, “How can I be sure of this?”
I have a theory, though. Could it be that all those years of disappointment created so much doubt that Zechariah allowed himself to be conquered by it? Sometimes we get so used to letdowns that we lose hope. Maybe that was the case with this man. Whatever the case, his doubt let to discipline. God took away his speech and probably his hearing until the birth of John. Doubt can actually thwart God’s work in your life. This is why I said it’s dangerous.
Apparently, Elizabeth responded in faith. She seems to have been a woman not given over to doubt. We see no remedial judgment extended to her like Zechariah, therefore we can assume she responded to God’s message positively. It must have taken faith because somehow her deaf and mute husband returned home and convinced her to conceive a child.
Along with disappointment, doubts will come, but if we’re to receive the gift that God wants to give we can’t let them bury us. We’ve got to let them buoy us toward God. Refuse to dwell on the thought that God isn’t coming through for you. Refuse to dwell on the thought that somehow you’ve done something to bring His displeasure. (Even if you have all you need to do is repent and not linger on your sin.) Overcoming doubt requires effort. It’s a fight during times of disappointment, but the payoff is well worth it.
One woman we know lived with the disappointment of a non-believing husband. The more she grew in her faith, the more he resisted any faith. He’s a doctor, a man of science, and as such he put up a shield of skepticism. He attended our church even while not a believer mainly because he liked the music. Once I preached on the evils of the lottery and he met me at the door to cheerfully tell me about the lottery ticket he’d purchased just a few days before. He resisted, but she persisted in her faith. She prayed. She shared without nagging. She invited other Christians into their home and lives to influence him. She kept encouraging him and bringing him to church. At a women’s retreat she asked the leader of the event to pray for her husband. He prophesied that God would have him. A week or two later, He did. I had the privilege after a worship service to lead him to Jesus. That woman opposed doubt and God delivered a gift that did not disappoint.
Sometime we just need to change our perception of what’s happening. Often times God’s gift is right in front of us and we don’t recognize it.
Prepare for a gift that keeps on giving
God’s gift to Zechariah and Elizabeth was both personal and corporate. That is to say, the birth of John the baptizer brought joy to his parents and the people of Judea. He took away the shame of his parents’ childlessness. John paved the way for the Messiah to come and bring salvation to the Jews. You can tell when a gift is from God because He blesses us and others through it.
God often uses the disappointments we face to reach out and help others who struggle with the same thing. A lady at the first church I served had a daughter born with a defective liver. They almost lost her on one occasion, but eventually the mother donated half her liver to her child for a successful transplant. What did that woman do with her disappointment over a sick child, huge expenses, insurance red tape and powerful fear? Today she helps parents and children struggling with the same problem to find the information, services and encouragement they need.
I’m sure you can think of others who have taken the disappointments of life and used their experience to bless other people. God’s gift often comes through the letdown if we’ll look for it. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 reminds us of this:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
The final way to maintain hope in the midst of letdowns is …
Exalt the Lord when His answer arrives
I know this isn’t terribly profound, but a remarkable number of people tend to forget God after they receive His blessing. It’s important to keep thanksgiving before us so that when the inevitable future letdowns come, we can look back at what God has done and continue moving forward to the future with faith in a God who never ultimately disappoints. Both Elizabeth and Zechariah practiced this. When she became pregnant Elizabeth said:
“The Lord has done this for me. In these days He has shown His favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” Luke 1:25
After directing the baby to be named John, in violation of tradition but in obedience to God’s command, here’s Zechariah’s response:
Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. Luke 1:64
Exalting God is the antidote to disappointment. If we remember what God did in the past and thank and praise Him for it, we’ll be more likely to have faith for the future. The apostle Paul probably felt some disappointment during his time in a Roman jail, but look at his advice from that cell:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:5-7
Disappointments will come and we have the choice to let them bury us or buoy us. God will keep his promises no matter what the situation may look like. If we approach the letdowns with hope, they’ll buoy us toward God and we’ll find a gift that doesn’t disappoint.
There’s the story of a young, yet advanced chess player, who visited the Louvre in Paris where he viewed a painting entitled “Checkmate.” The famous painting depicts a chessboard with a master chess player making the final move to checkmate his opponent. The young man, knowing more about chess than art, after studying the board for hours cried out, “No, it’s not checkmate! The game is not over. It’s not checkmate. There is still another move to be made. There’s still hope!”
No matter what you’ve experienced, no matter what your circumstances, no matter what your letdowns, God’s plan is not over. There’s always one more move. There’s still hope. Disappointments will come make the choice to let them buoy you not bury you.
