“What did you expect?”
That question can take a lot of joy away from a person, and I know in the past it has. An expectation is something that can steal the joy of an experience out from underneath a person. An expectation can also be met with flying colors and bring something even better than expected.
This year I had expectations coming into the World Race, not only were they high expectations but they were based on past experiences. I went through a personality test the first week of the race with my squad leader and it taught me a lot about how I operate. My driver, which is the personality trait I am driven by, is harmony, I am fueled by harmony within groups of people and want peace amongst any situation. Not only am I driven by harmony but, my copilot is memory, which means I read a situation and react based off of my past experiences.
I am quickly learning that I have expectations that will never be met. I expected the World Race to be similar to my study abroad experience where I would be able to see everything I wanted to do in a country and travel all around. God is quickly squashing that expectation as he has placed myself and my team in one area to experience and grow in each month, its not just a couple months to go travel around, its to serve him.
I am quickly learning that expectations can be surpassed. I expected to not like living with seven people all the time, 24/7 and not having any alone time. I thought I would get frustrated really easily and not like living in this close of community. Within a few days I realized how much I loved living with six other sisters in Christ. God has shone me the fruit of having sisters who love, pursue, push, laugh, encourage, cry, share and care for each other all the time. The expectation for a community of Christians has been surpassed with flying colors and I continue to learn from and enjoy living in community.
I am quickly learning that where there are no expectations there can be great joy. I didn’t know what to expect from the ministry that I was doing in each country. Since I don’t have a lot of experience with ministry (besides a year of on campus ministry), I didn’t know what to expect from ministry. God has taught me on the World Race that ministry can be anywhere you go and can be teaching English, doing manual labor, preaching to children or praying over someone. The fact that I didn’t expect anything meant that I wasn’t able to compare this ministry to much of anything. In a way that has been a blessing because I am not let down by my past experiences being better or having nothing to lean on in this situation.
I think an expectation can be a good thing when we expect for God to work. If its an expectation that is not of God and for others to meet your expectations, they will always fail you. Yet, if an expectation is above what God wants for you and you aren’t able to realize that His plan is greater than yours, then it becomes a problem. I want to expect the best, but then my mind is set on that particular thing and my eyes aren’t open to partake in beautiful things in store for me.
So, lets embrace the unexpected and expect the best from God.
