I have a friend who talks a lot about the difference between expectations and expectancy. The words seem almost synonymous but they’re not. Google.com defines them both in this way:
Expectation: A strong belief something will happen
Expectancy: The state of thinking or hoping something will happen
Do you see the difference? A strong belief verses thinking or hoping something will happen. My friend encourages me to be a person of expectancy rather than a person full of expectations. The reason is that life often doesn’t go the way we want or think it should. Thus if we live as people with expectations we will often get stuck on our “strong belief” of the way things should be and miss out on what is happening around us or become disappointed because we are holding to tightly to our own understanding of how things should go. I’ve often seen people react to this by trying not to hope or dream because they don’t want to feel the pain of disappointment again.
Expectancy is different. When we live as people of expectancy we still hope and dream but we don’t hold so tightly to our hopes that we are unable to experience life apart from them. A good analogy for this is open hands verses closed hands. When we live as people of expectation we live with closed hands. Closed hands are great for holding onto things but it is impossible to receive or give something through a clenched fist. On the flipside people of expectancy live with open hands. Open hands are still able to hold things, but the contents can be easily changed, freely receiving and freely giving. I desire to be a person of expectancy, holding things in open hands.
That said, let me answer this question:
What is my expectancy for the World Race?
- To see God move in ways I could never ask or imagine
- To make friends with people all over the world
- To gain a broader worldview
- To have a better understanding of world missions
- To experience life change
- To have fun and be challenged all along the way
What is your expectancy today?
