Unhealthy Expectations
With this week’s Monday Morning Health Tip arriving in your inbox the day before Christmas, you may not be getting around to reading it until days later. Possibly you are sitting on the couch joining me on your laptop, tablet, or phone, all while intermittently staring blankly at a wall, still recovering from the food coma you were in a few days back. Or, maybe you’re trying your best to settle your brain and body back down to “neutral” from the multiple days of overdrive you’ve been living in.
For so many people there is also a post-Christmas emotional letdown which accompanies their post-holiday physical weariness. Often this emotionally “dark” wave comes from unmet expectations. Some people will tell you to LOWER your expectations, or if you have a really dysfunctional group of people you must interact with around the holidays, to have NO expectations—that way your heart won’t get hurt. I know this firsthand as I have received this advice more times than I can remember.
The thing is, I believe we were created by God in His image, full of expectation! Our Lord waits expectantly for us to call on His Name and for the fullness of time to come so that His Word might be fulfilled. We Believers, likewise, wait with joyful expectation of answered prayer, of personal restoration, and of the return of our Savior. We are made to expect (and long for) good things, great times, and overflowing joy.
So, what makes our expectations unhealthy? Expectations became unhealthy, and we become dissatisfied (and even “dark”), when we place the full responsibility of our joy and contentment on other people or on situations as we envision them to be, Pinterest-style. When people and events don’t match our deep need for joy, we look back at the holidays with unfulfilled longing.
Friend, first, put your eyes on Jesus, and don’t take them off. Ask Him what He would like your holiday season to look like. Maybe He wants you to be more PRESENT, maybe he needs to develop in you the quality of LONGSUFFERING, maybe He simply wants to be your one-stop-shop for CONTENTEDNESS.
This year I will have moved into a new home literally the week before Christmas. There will be many boxes around my tree—that is, if I can get to that task—but they will be of the moving kind, not the pretty colored wrapping kind. Needless to say, I will have to alter my expectations for this holiday season!
And that is my point. I will not seek to LOWER my expectations or determine to have NO expectations; rather I will purpose to have APPROPRIATE expectations given my present circumstances. I want to honor my Jesus and make Him, and the friends and family who come to spend time with me, feel welcome in my home and in my heart.
I pray the same perspective for you. Merry Christmas, and thank you for continuing to accompany me on this journey to Get Healthy for Heaven’s Sake!