“You’re going on the World Race? How exciting! What are you most looking forward to?”
I really wish I had an answer to this question because it’s one that I am frequently asked; however I don’t believe that anything I say would be an accurate response. I will be living out of a backpack while I travel around Asia to serve Jesus for 11 months. Considering this, I would agree that it seems crazy that I can’t produce an answer, however there is a reason. I have been asked to share my expectations for next year while I’m on the World Race, but…
I don’t have expectations. I don’t want to have expectations.
My fear is that if I go into next year with expectations then I will be too focused on the things that I hope to see or experience, focused on the things that I want to learn. I don’t want the ideas and expectations in my head to distract me from what the Lord is doing. I worry that if I am preoccupied with trying to find the Lord in the way I expect Him to work rather than just allowing Him to show up, I will be missing what next year is really for. Next year is not about me, it’s about Him. I want to go into the World Race able to openly receive whatever the Lord may have for me, even if it is not what I would expect it to be. I want to go into the race in a state of expectancy rather than going in with expectations.
As humans we naturally feel disappointed when things don’t go according to the way we expect them to. With expectations it seems that the reality always falls short. Expectancy, on the other hand, is different. It is open-ended. It is hopeful. Expectancy doesn’t set terms and conditions for the outcomes and it allows for anticipation that something beautiful could happen.
I don’t want to expect and seek something while the Lord is trying to show me something else. I don’t want to set expectations and have the reality fall short of what I built up in my head. The World Race is about to be an incredible, eye-opening journey and the beauty of next year is that I know the Lord will reveal Himself and show up in ways that I never could have expected Him to.
Is there an expectation in your life that you are looking to fulfill or holding onto so tightly that you can’t see what the Lord is trying to do around you? I challenge you to step back and enter into a state of expectancy with the Lord.
