When I was in 8th grade my dad came home and told me we were moving. I was crushed. I don’t know how 8th grade was for you, but for me it was a magical time in my life. Things were pretty much moving along according to my 13 year old expectations. I had all the friends I needed. School was good. I had no reason to think life wouldn’t play out exactly as I had planned. But this move threatened to ruin everything. I was so angry. What I wanted was to keep living in the town in which I’d grown up. What I got was a directive to move to a place where I knew no one. What I wanted was to keep all my old friends. What I got was a challenge to make new friends. It wasn’t at all what I expected from life. I’d show my dad. He could make me move but he couldn’t make me enjoy it. My expectations of my new life couldn’t have been lower. I spent the first 6 months being miserable. I came home from school every day and pouted. Thankfully, things began to turn around but only after my anger relented and I began to be open to new possibilities. Things turned out well for me because as so often happens at times like these, reality outperformed my expectations.
In the book of 2 Kings we read of a man named Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram. Naaman had leprosy. Wanting to be healed, Naaman went to the prophet Elisha with great expectations. He’d heard of Elisha’s miraculous powers. When he arrived, Elisha sent Naaman a messenger who told him to go bathe in the Jordan River. Naaman was livid. This wasn’t what he expected. He stated, “I thought that for me Elisha would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy… Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
What he wanted was the celebrated prophet Elisha; what he got was Elisha’s messenger. What he wanted was a big impressive miracle befitting a man of his importance; what he got was an invitation to go for a swim. This wasn’t at all what he expected. Naaman was so angry. He’d show them. He threatened to turn around and go home. However, Naaman finally did what Elisha’s messenger told him to do. He went and dipped in the Jordan River and was healed. Things turned around for Naaman but only after his anger relented and he began to be open to new possibilities. Things turned out well for him when he realized that reality could outperform his expectations. The truth of the matter is that Naaman’s unmet expectations almost caused him to go home unhealed; they almost caused him to miss what God had in store for him.
I once heard that happiness is reality minus expectations. Like me at 13 and Naaman the leper, sometimes our expectations lead to anger and disappointment. And yet oftentimes God’s work comes in unexpected ways and the only way we will experience its fullness is to be open to things we never expected; to be surprised by God in ways that we never saw coming. Sometimes life presents us with something that is less than we were expecting but proves to be better than we could have ever hoped for.
