No expectations… can that really be done?

It’s one of those nights. Fishing, grilled chicken and salad, s’mores and campfire and no expectations. Can that really happen? To have no expectations in life? We live in a world where we are expected to drive in the right lane, put our turning signals on, have our lights on when it’s raining, take out the garbage on Tuesday night, mow the lawn alternating patterns so it grows right and send a card on every birthday. We have expectations whether or not we admit them or we ignore them.

We get disappointed when others don’t meet up to our expectations. Oh we say it’s ok but when it comes down to it, they blew it; we expected more. Someone one told me if I expect nothing I will never be disappointed. That’s true to some degree but I want to believe I can expect some things in life.

I expect you to answer my phone call or at least call me back to find out why I called you. I expect you to smile back at me. I expect you to come stand by me and put your arm around me when I am hurting. I expect you to come when I invite you for supper. I expect you to eat my fresh hot chocolate chip cookies. I expect you to hand me over the baby so I get a baby fix. I expect you to ask Jim where I am if we are not together and vise versa. I expect church to be full of Bible verses. I expect music to be joyful and dance worthy even at funerals. I expect joy to be found in flowers, friends and baseball games. And yet, I realize often I will be left with disappointment , empty hearts and moments of “really?” And then days like today; there were no expectations. Today we slept late, laughed at rainy weather, laughter again, went shopping, found surprise bargains, went fishing and catching, played card games and had moments of simply being in a beautiful place in Gods world and saying “this is beautiful.” There are days when expectations are standard. There are days when they will be met and days we will say, “oh well maybe tomorrow.” And then there are days God just gives you what you expect; being blessed and being loved just because you are his child… tomorrow may not be quite as beautiful as today, but we will always remember the days when God simply loves on us and we giggle in return and say, “thank you for letting me expect you to show up.”