By Keith Spurgin

 

I remember my first Big Time College football game. I was so excited. People had told me about college football games for years. I had heard about all the traditions, the fans, the excitement, the atmosphere and the game itself. I had seen plenty of it on TV but never experienced it in person.

It was the Cotton Bowl in 1996 so it was sure to be a great game. Unfortunately that was the first and only year there was no regional team involved. The Southwest Conference had recently dissolved and so the Cotton Bowl committee invited the Colorado Buffaloes and the Oregon Ducks. This was long before the ducks were the Ducks of crazy uniforms, wide open offenses and incredibly talented players. They still had Daffy Duck on their helmets and there team just wasn’t that good. The weather was terribly cold with freezing rain. Only about 5,000 fans were in the stands and there was no excitement whatsoever. The final score was CU 38 OU 6.

I was so disappointed!

Have you ever been disappointed? Have you ever been to a movie someone said was great and thought, “Am I in the right movie because this stinks”?

Have you ever been on a blind date…enough said?

Some people spend tens of thousands of dollars on a wedding only to find out they married Bride-zilla!

Sometimes life just isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. But perhaps there’s more…

The Bible says that God wants to do more in and through us than we can ever ask or imagine. That’s a pretty bold statement because I don’t know about you, but I can imagine a lot!

If that’s true then why is life so often disappointing? Well I certainly don’t know all the reasons but let’s see if we can unpack a couple reasons that might help us understand what’s going on.

Sometimes we get disappointed because…

We think destination and God thinks journey

We think if God loved me everything would go my way, but God has us in a process of transformation that takes time and trial. None of us give our kids everything they want because we know they will be spoiled. Children who get everything they want become adults who have been set up for failure because they don’t know how to own their lives. They think the world owes them something. This is a recipe for disaster.

We want the end at the beginning

Sometimes young couples wants at the beginning what it took their parents 30 years to accumulate. This leads to debt, confusion, disillusionment and often times incredible relational pain.

We give up before we grow up

The only difference between Judas and Peter was that Judas gave up before he experienced the more of Jesus’ resurrection and forgiveness. Peter hung around, didn’t give up and became the leader of the movement that ultimately changed the world for good.

No matter what you are going through God has more for you! He’s not finished with you and he hasn’t given up on you. Don’t give up on him because…there is so much More!

Keith Spurgin is Lead Pastor of New Hope Church in Wylie newhopechristian.org and President of The Growth Resourcing Group growthresourcing.com