Expectations

Have you ever noticed that a large part of our perceptions of things is based what we expect. For example, if you would have gone into X-men 2 expecting to be like the exact embodiment of “God Loves, Man Kills” projected on the screen you would have been disappointed. (For you non-comic book people that story is the X-men that the movie was based on) If I walked into every movie/play/book/song expecting it to be one thing, and it turns out to be another, I am usually upset. But if I walk into these type of things with an open mind it allows me to enjoy that form of entertainment for what it is, and not what I want it to be. An good example of this is the Lord of the Rings movies. If I walked into these movies wishing that they were ‘exactly’ the same as the book I would be pissed. (kinda like the fan-boys on the internet complaining about this book) Instead, for these movies, they have opted to not make each one 10 hours long and remove some of the dialog and a few of the minor scenes….and some of the not so minor ones, but that was directors discretion, and I really enjoyed the movie. All I expected was for the main story to remain intact, which has been the case.
That being said, I must now say that I have been thinking about that for some time….having resolved to no longer expect anything from much of anything in the way of entertainment, and have instead switched to watching other people do this. I have seen other friends of mine grow out of being overly-expectant fanboys, and into people more like me who watch others. There are still several of our friends who do this, but that is besides the point.
Now recently I have been watching a trend in my life….and noticing this especially at church. I have found that a lot of small changes have been taking place over the last year. Looking at these in retrospect make them seem fairly major. The problem with this is that even though they are fairly major, I find myself feel like this was just something that was meant to happen. This ties into the movie thing because I look at people as they go through their walk in life and I just expect the same type of things to happen. I hear myself saying things like “God is working that persons life…..give it time” and “I can’t believe that they don’t get that.” But the reality of that is that I haven’t understood some of these things for very long, and it wasn’t that long ago where I had no idea, and no reassurance of what God was doing in my life. It is hard not to look at someone and see what God is just starting to do in their life and not jump to the conclusion that they should understand things like this is old hat. It bothers me that I can’t see past my own current threshold of understanding and think back to what it was like to be inside my head 3,6, or 12 months ago, and remember what it felt like to be me then, as opposed to me now. I seem to have learned to cut off my expectations for my entertainment, but I need to learn to stop expecting certain things from people in my relationships. Not everyone thinks like I do, and not everyone is where I am in my life.
I think the craziest part is when I sit down and analyze the situation I find that I would have done or said something similar to what upset me at some point back in the day in my own life.
So I will try to enter into relationships and situations within those relationships devoid of expectations, and it is something that I would recommend other people doing as well. When I have successfully done this in the past it has made worlds of difference in those relationships or specific situations.

But I must stop as I am tired and wish to sleep…..so until tomorrow……Thank you, and Goodnight.