Expectations, Possibilities and Hope; How often these three things have cased trouble in my life I cannot say! Many times I have tried to sort it out to no avail. But this morning it was different, something came together in my mind and heart.
Expectation is the stuff of the mind and experience. It is what happens when one has lived long enough to know that fire burns, that a coat is needed when venturing into a snowstorm, and that playing in the rain will fill your shoes with water. It comes from trial and error; from scientific examination or mathematical computation. To have experience is to achieve expectation either in the surety or in the variability of action or result. No thinking, alive person lives without expectation. It is an integral par of living life and without it there would be no point of reference for future behavior or interaction.
Possibility, on the other hand contains the combination of potential outcomes and actions available in any interaction or situation. It is the stuff of variability. Whether seen or unseen, it holds all the surprises the both delight and frustrate expectation. Without possibility life would become a boring ritual where every action or entity would never vary and every day would become predictable sameness. Expectation would never be thwarted or disappointed without possibility.
Hope is the fulcrum on which expectation and possibility rests. It is a function of the heart and not the mind. It is born of faith that the possibilities will keep in check the destruction caused by expectations or visa-versa. That status quo will NOT forever stagnate discovery and progress and growth. That insertions will have the potential of becoming action, and that a Higher Power could lift human beings from their self-destructive ways into healthy functional ways of interacting with each other and their world. It is in hope that the expectations of experience and the unknown possibilities find balance and proportion in ones heart and life. Without faith it is impossible to have hope. What one chooses to believe in is therefore crucial to healthy balance.
As a child of God, my faith lies not in the expectations that have come from either my scientific studies or my experiences in life. Nor does it rest in the endless varieties of possibilities. It lies instead in the realization that my life is but one small part of a larger picture; that to the ever-changing possibilities are added the resources of heaven. The resources of protection, wisdom, and healing are available simply because I believe in the Highest Power in the universe. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and in Jesus the Son of God! These resources come to me with a timeliness that is far beyond my manipulation or control. It keeps me stable in my expectations and excited in the possibilities. As my faith grows, the fulcrum of hope grows too and balance becomes a reality.
My experiences in life would lead me to despairing expectations; especially when it comes to relationships and human beings. Being loved, nurtured, and protected would appear to be a very remote possibility and certainly NO expectation. Fear becomes a prominent emotion when entering the arena of new relationships. The possibilities for evil often seem larger than the possibilities for good.
It is only in a hope fueled by faith that I can face the fear and walk into the “mouth of lions” with confidence. Because I have experience with the God of my life, I can let the expectations rest in the reality of the moment and focus on the potential of the good possibilities. I can let hope propel me past the fear and keep me balanced in the teeter-totter ride with expectation and possibility.
And if human beings should fail me again, there is still the hope and the faith and my relationship with Almighty God that never fails. His love for me keeps me coming back to the human experience at the point where hope finds meeting in the moment that occurs between expectation and possibility. In the end that is all that matters…everything else is on the fringes-the fringes of sanity and life.