Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations,  tells of the struggles and frustrations of Pip, a young man with great expectations. Great expectations can often lead to struggles and frustrations in life. Furthermore, they can result in us missing God and His work in our lives.

Israel missed their promised Messiah, because of their great expectations. They had particular expectations of how their Messiah would come, how He would be and what He would do. However, when Christ came, He did the unexpected. Consequently, the possibility of Christ being their Messiah was dismissed by the people due to the fact that He failed to meet their expectations.

The ancient Prophet Isaiah saw this from afar. Predicting Christ’s coming hundreds of years before Christ came, Isaiah asked, “Who hath believed our report?” If I might be allowed to paraphrase, Isaiah asked, “Whose going to believe this?” Isaiah knew that no one was expecting what he was predicting (Isaiah 53:1-12).

• The coming Messiah would be born of a lowly virgin.
• He would not be particularly attractive, so as to attract any special attention.
• Rather than being popular, He would be despised and rejected.
• Rather than being happy, He would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
• Rather than being accepted, He would be ignored and abandoned.
• Rather than seen as the Christ—the Promised One of God—He would been seen as a criminal—one punished by God.
• Rather than coroneted, He would be crucified.
• Rather than enthroned, He would be entombed.

If we today, like Israel of old, have expectations of God that are not founded on His Word and contrary to His will, we’re liable to miss God every time He fails to meet our expectations and does something unexpected in our lives.

In 2012, let’s resolve to rid ourselves of too great of expectations. By doing so we will spare ourselves from many a struggle and from much frustration. In addition, we will reduce the likelihood of us missing God every time He does something unexpected in our lives.

Let’s look at four areas in our lives where we need to rid ourselves of too great of expectations. First, we normally expect too much of life itself.

I once had a friend who got sweet on a girl who wanted little to do with him. He went to a movie and saw a touching scene in which a young couple fell madly in love while he pushed her on a park swing. Having a community park with a large swing set below our high school, my friend talked his “intended” into accompanying him to the park. While there, he coaxed her into the swing, but while pushing her, she caught her heel on a root. As a result, she was flipped out of the swing, her pretty dress was torn and she was more than a little scuffed up. Needless to say, they didn’t fall madly in love; she just got so mad that she never wanted anything else to do with him.

Life normally defies big screen “happy-ever-after” endings. Oh, I know that the televangelist promises you health, wealth and happiness, but Jesus said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows” (John 16:33 NLT). Who are you going to believe, the one you want to—the televangelist—or the One you know you should—Jesus?

God hath not promised skies always blue,

Flower strewn pathways, all our lives through;

God hath not promised sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

But God hath promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labour, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above,

Unfailing kindness, undying love.

Life is a messy business. Many an idealist attempts to neatly wrap up everyday with a big pretty ribbon on top, but life simply defies such neat packaging. It is always breaking out and spilling all over the place.

Why does life throw us curves when we need easy pitches to hit? Have you ever thought about the fact that it is only when life starts hurling hard sliders and spitballs at us; that is, when it gets difficult and unfair, that we learn whether or not we have enough nerve to stay in the box and keep swinging away?

In His most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught us that the true measure of life is not found in our actions, but in our reactions. Anyone can act right when things are going right, but only the children of God can act right when nothing is going right. According to Jesus, the children of God are distinguished from the rest of the world by:

1. Turning the other cheek to all who strike them.
2. Giving their coats to all who take their shirts.
3. Going a second mile for all who force them to go the first mile.
4. Blessing those who curse them.
5. Loving those who hate them.
6. Praying for those who persecute them.

If it were not for life's messes, difficulties and injustices, the children of God would be indistinguishable from the children of this world. This invaluable truth had certainly been learned by an unknown confederate  soldier, whose body was found on a Civil War battlefield with the following prayer in his pocket.

I asked God for strength that I might achieve, but I was made weak that I might learn to humbly obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things, but I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked God for riches that I might be happy, but I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked God for power that I might have the praise of men, but I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life, but I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

Along with expecting too much out of life, we also expect too much out of ourselves. This source of struggle and frustration in our lives often goes undetected, due to today’s widespread denial of the biblical doctrine of original sin and widespread acceptance of the easily disproved fallacy of unlimited human potential.

The biblical doctrine of original sin, as well as its  accompanying doctrine of human depravity, have all of recorded human history to substantiate them. On the other hand, the erroneous notion of unlimited human potential is easily disproved by any number of things, including the disillusion of a New Year’s resolution.

“New Year’s Day…is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” (Mark Twain)

“Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” (Oscar Wilde)

“A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other.” (Anonymous)

What is the problem with New Year’s resolutions? It is not a lack of resolve or absence of good intentions on our part, but our inability to keep them.

Having rejected the doctrine of original sin and buying into the fallacy of unlimited human potential, most people today erroneously think that they can do whatever they think they can do. As the televangelist puts it: “You can achieve whatever you can believe!” Thus, most people today roll through life like “The Little Engine Who Could,” continuously reciting to themselves “I think I can; I think I can,” while life repeatedly derails them time after time.

All of us have a “Super Me” and a “Real Me.” “Super Me” is the idealized image that we have of ourselves and that we are always trying to present to others. “Real Me” is our real and exasperating selves that keeps showing up and having to be excused to others. How many times have we tried to excuse our inexcusable behavior with comments like these: ❶ “I don’t know what came over me” ❷ “That’s just not like me,” or the ever-popular ❸ “I’m just not myself today”?

The tragedy is; as long as we keep expecting everything from ourselves, we’ll keep trying, as well as keep being exasperated and having to make excuses for ourselves to others. However, if we ever stop expecting anything from ourselves, we can start trusting Christ and expecting everything from Him. Once we do, we’ll no longer find ourselves failing to follow through, but we’ll find Christ  faithfully coming through for us.

The Christian life is not so much a changed life, as it is an exchanged life. It is the exchanging of our life for Christ’s life. It is not so much us living for Christ, but Christ living through us. Once we learn that we can’t, but only Christ can, we’ll stop trying and expecting everything from ourselves, and we’ll start trusting and expecting everything from Him. Then, Christ will:

• Conform us into the righteous person we hope to be — “For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.” (Galatians 5:5 NIV)
• Make our lives into what they ought to be — “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
• Do through us all that He has called us to do — “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

It’s not just ourselves, but also others that we often expect too much of. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

First, let’s look at today’s politicians. I recently received an email explaining to me how our country has become an “Ineptocracy.” According to the email, an “Ineptocracy” is: “A System of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.”

If there is a more inept group of people in today’s America than that bunch in Washington D.C., I’d like to see them. If you are expecting them to solve your problems, I pity you. If you are expecting them to meet your needs and the needs of your family, I pity you.

I’m always amazed when people complain after a natural disaster that the government’s response was too slow and inept. Where have these people been? What planet do they come from? Have they never driven through a public housing project? Have they never called the IRS with a tax question? Are they unaware of what is happening with the Post Office? Have they never sent a child to the public schools?

Ronald Reagan was right when he said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

To show today’s politicians that turnabout is fair play, I’ll now turn my aim on those in my own profession. Preachers, like politicians, are people whom others often expect too much of. The following serves as a good illustrate of this point.

THE PERFECT PASTOR

The Perfect Pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes. He condemns sin roundly, but never hurts anyone’s feelings. He works from 8 a.m. until midnight, and is also the church janitor.

The Perfect Pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church. He is 29 years old and has 40 years’ worth of experience. Above all, he is handsome.

The Perfect Pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of his time with the senior citizens. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church. He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed.

The Perfect Pastor always has time for church meetings and all of its committees, never missing the meeting of any church organization. And he is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.

Of course, the Perfect Pastor is never yours, but always the pastor in the next town over!

For years, our churches have been plagued by something called “the Super-Hired-Holy-Man Syndrome.” Thanks to this syndrome, pastors are expected to have a three-point and poem solution to all of our problems, even to something as potentially catastrophic as nuclear proliferation.

In addition, Pastors are suppose to have a Scriptural formula for you to follow in the achieving of all of your hopes and dreams. Somehow it always eludes gullible congregants that such formulas never really work. For instance, the Crystal Cathedral, the house that “possibility thinking” built, has gone bankrupt and Bruce Wilkinson, the author of “The Prayer of Jabez,” resigned from his ministry in Africa over his prayer not being answered.

Another thing that pastors are often expected to do is offer their congregants expert advice on any subject and wise counsel in any and all situations. Never mind that the pastor may have no knowledge of the subject nor any personal experience in your particular situation. He’s still suppose to pop out sage advice like an IHOP does pancakes.

Do you remember when the Pharisees asked John the Baptist if he was the Messiah (John1:19-20)? John responded, “I am not the Christ.” If I might be permitted to paraphrase the Baptist, he said, “Pardon me, but I’m not Jesus.” Too many church goers today are confusing Christ’s undershepherds (pastors) with Christ Himself, the Good and Chief Shepherd of our souls.

Don’t confuse your pastor with your Lord nor look to politicians to do for our country what God alone can do. If you do, you’ll be greatly disappointed in 2012.

Along with ridding ourselves of too great of expectations of life, ourselves and others in 2012, we should also rid ourselves of too great of expectations of the church.

Too many people today, especially the spiritually immature, have their heads in the clouds where they imagine a fleecy white church dripping with honey from Heaven so that all is sweet in its Spirit-filled sanctuary occupied by sterling saints who are shaking the world for Christ. When the church fails to live up to their fanciful, idealistic and impossible expectations, these idealists become disillusioned with their church and leave it in search of another that will live up to this illusive figment of their imagination.

Eventually, after unsuccessfully hopping from one church to another in search of the perfect church, these idealists become so spiritually disillusioned that they quit church altogether. Apparently, their own imperfections evade their notice, as does the fact that if they were to find a perfect church and join it, they themselves would ruin it, bringing their own imperfections into it.

Everyone seems to have great expectations of the contemporary church. The first question church-hoppers or church-shoppers ask of every church is: “What can your church do for me?” If it cannot do as much as another church down the road, then, they’ll go to the one down the road rather than to yours, at least until they find another church that tickles their fancy more than the church down the road.

Today, the church is expected by many to religiously educate their children, despite the fact that the only religious education program for children found in all of the Bible is the home. Although the church can never replace the home, many modern-day parents abdicate their parental responsibilities to the church.

Other impossible expectations of the contemporary church are bountiful in these days of starry-eyed, spiritual wishful thinkers. For instance, many expect church services to be entertaining enough to attract the world, spiritual enough to edify the saint and reverent enough to worship God. Others expect the church to be effectively winning the lost with a compromised, watered down and sugar-coated gospel that is totally inoffensive to the immoral and amoral, as well as to all other faiths, in particularly Islam, and to today’s supersensitive politically correct society.

Let’s don’t look at the church idealistically in 2012; after all, it can never rise to a spirituality that exceeds that of its members. In other words, your church can be no more than you make it. If you want your church to be a better church, then, you need to be a better church member. Instead of asking what your church can do for you, you ought to ask what you can do for your church!

In 2012, rid yourself of too great of expectations. Don’t expect too much of ❶ life ❷ yourself ❸ others, or ❹ the church. By ridding yourself of too great of expectations you will spare yourself from much struggle and frustration in the New Year, not to mention protect yourself from the possibility of missing God when He fails to meet your expectations and does something totally unexpected in your life.