Words from Pastor Matt

Disappointment is not easy. I think over the last 8 months I have never experienced so much disappointment. I am disappointed that meeting together for church on Sunday morning is not normal. I am disappointed that CrossTraining and Cadets and GEMS and CREW and YAC and Senior High Sunday School are not having normal meetings. I am disappointed that when I forget my mask I can’t go into the store and have to return home to get one. I am disappointed that our Harvest Auction is now a Harvest Fundraiser because the COVID crisis continues. I am disappointed that video conferencing calls are still the primary way of communication for me. I am disappointed that service trips to the Gulf after the hurricanes have not been announced. I could go on and I think you could add a number of disappointments to this growing list because disappointment seems to be the environment we live in now. Running from disappointment is not possible and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it in sight so what is to be done with all this disappointment? I have been wrestling with this question lately and I believe that God can be glorified in the way we handle disappointment. I believe that handling disappointment biblically brings God glory and returns us to sanity. Biblical disappointment does not try to ignore it or pretend it does not exist. Dealing with disappointment biblically will call us to look at it squarely, acknowledge it, remember what and where are treasure is, and reveal even more of God’s glory.  If we go to the book of Psalms we find an authentic expression of great disappointment. The very real and authentic expression of life and relationship with God is expressed in this book. So looking to scripture to help bring form and shape to our disappointment we might look to Psalm 22. This Psalm opens with the great disappointment of feeling forsaken by God. Waiting and not hearing an answer is the acknowledged disappointment. The Psalmist is staring disappointment in the face and naming it, acknowledging it. Next the Psalmist acknowledges the character of God. This knowledge has been revealed through the past, handed down from generation to generation. The one who has chosen not answering is sovereign and trust-worthy and the savior. The Psalmist reminds himself and us that while the answer is not forthcoming the true God always fulfills his promises. The promise that God has made away to live with him through Jesus’s blood so that we would always be his and he would always be our’s is the greatest treasure. This great treasure does not come from us. The Psalmist acknowledges that he is a worm and powerless; apart from God he can do nothing. The Psalmist moves through persecution and trouble because he fixes his eyes on the true treasure, God’s presence. Finally, in setting our perspective with the Psalmist that our greatest treasure is God we bring him glory out of our disappointment. Our disappointment is testimony that nothing can fulfill what we need. It is God alone that can fulfill. God’s presence in our life is the true yearning of all of hearts. The Psalm ends with the reality that all will give an account as to how we filled this yearning and how we instructed the next generation to fill that yearning. How are you filling that yearning? How are you going to engage with your disappointment today?