“Then God spoke to Samuel: “I’m sorry I ever made Saul king. He’s turned his back on me. He refuses to do what I tell him.” Samuel was angry when he heard this. He prayed his anger and disappointment all through the night. – 1 Samuel 15:10
I love this time of year… I’m caught in the collision of the 40 days of Lent where I spend a bit more effort working on me while at the same time find myself engaged in the madness of March’s NCAA men’s basketball. There are 64 teams on day one and 63 of those teams and their fans will experience disappointment all in a matter of nineteen days. That’s enough disappointment to last a whole year… allowing for the hurt to subside only to find a way to do it all over again.
And it seems God can get disappointed too… enough that it rubs off onto people like Samuel the prophet or you… or me… yeah, we’ve all known disappointment a time or two… and if we’re honest we can all admit we’ve BEEN the disappointment once or twice as well… and maybe even for others… we’ve just stopped counting. Faith matters…even in disappointment!
There are two schools of thought here on this… first, it’s prudent to ask, ‘does God really get disappointed with us?’ Really? Is that God’s nature? Is disappointment part of God’s will? We couldn’t blame God if this were the case… after all… the news broadcasters are bringing stories of horrendous behavior by those who have been created in the image of God intended to produce good fruit and bear the light of faith and hope everywhere they go… so I guess we all share in that kind of disappointment.
The second way to look at this is to ask a similar yet very different question… ‘does God get disappointed FOR us?’ Now, that’s a whole different deal, right? After all the Psalmist reminds us, God knows our inner most being (Psalm 139:3) better than we do ourselves thus making it difficult to surprise God when it comes to our thoughts and actions… so at least there must be some sort of frustration factor on God’s part and at the same time it seems LOVE is a greater force in God’s mind with John’s gospel claiming Jesus came into the world out of LOVE… as in “FOR God so LOVED the world he gave…” rather than God gave the world Jesus simply out of disappointment… and even if there is a hint of it… disappointment isn’t the final word…
Can ‘disappointment’ be a friend? I think so… maybe more than a friend… as disappointment can be our teacher… teaching us… and reminding us… we have a passion for something…as Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “there can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.” Thus, our passions… failed or interrupted…drive us back to our hopes and dreams!
And remember… it’s Lent… that time of our faith life to take that look at yourself… like a teacher back for Spring break…providing and E for ‘excellent,’ an S for ‘satisfactory’ or an F for ‘failure’… with the understanding we all deserve an ‘I’… indicating ‘in need for improvement!’ as disappointment offers each and every one of us an opportunity to learn and grow.
Lastly, I would suggest that disappointment… in the big scheme of things… makes each of us stronger, more resilient, and at least more cautious adding a layer or two of toughness to our inner soul in order to press on to embrace what is yet to come…
Long ago, an old mentor told me this… “your level of disappointment (or frustration) is always equal to your level of expectation!” That reality never changes so it’s no wonder God was disappointed with Samuel… and then… then… there’s us…
The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Gigee is a long-time resident of Pearland, having pastored four churches over the last four decades in Texas and Louisiana. Read more following Brian’s blog ‘murmurings’ at briangigee.wordpress.com. Send comments and/or questions to godworks247365@gmail.com.
