Advent 3: Expectations
Advent 3
With over one thousand unique animals representing ten different species all living together on a farm in the bi-polar Texas weather, my expectations for a day can get thrown out with the horse manure pretty quickly.
Expectations. In Alcoholics Anonymous we have a saying—expectations are premeditated resentments. Or as as Anne Lamott says it, “expectations are resentments under construction.”
When I expect everything to go according to my agenda, and everyone to behave according to my plan, and all the modern conveniences of life to work just right (God forbid that there is a supply chain shortage!) I simply end up as the Grinch with smoldering resentments at every turn.
In Jesus' day the expectation was that politics would save the day. They were looking for a warrior messiah that would drive out out the Romans and restore not only the capital city, but the monarchy of David, with all its imperial power and international influence.
Matthew (along with many of the prophets) instead taught that joy and peace would not come through grand expectations but unexpectedly, even quietly, so that so we should watch, listen, pay attention.
What does “watch, listen, pay attention look like?”
I have a friend who regularly practices listening to the person in front of them without any agenda for them to do or ideas on how to fix them.
I know a group of people who meet outdoors for worship every Sunday no matter the weather, and the sermon is simply paying attention to nature. They all agree that they have heard enough people sermons.
I know another person who listens to reggae music every day and she swears it got her through her divorce.
For me, every time I watch the sun come up over our pasture early in the morning or the stars come so close at night that I can almost catch one, awe and astonishment quietly free me from all of my outlandish expectations.
Back when I was in rehab one of the guys that worked the 12 steps with us was old school military and rough around the edges but every night he would come to the dinner table and say, “be right here, right now, you don’t want to miss it!”
I think he was right. It may be that God is not found in any of our lofty expectations at all but right here, right now—even in your next breath. Watch. Listen. Pay attention.
