Editor's note: Enjoy this devotion from Chris Hodges' Breathe Again.
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You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. ~ Randy Alcorn
Sometimes we’re so excited about something in our lives that there’s no way it can live up to our expectations.
Have you ever built up your expectations only to discover that things didn’t work out the way you had hoped? There’s nothing like unfulfilled expectations to take the wind out of your sails. Or as Scripture puts it,
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. — Proverbs 13:12
When you expect something and envision it a certain way, only to discover it’s not that way at all, it really does feel like your heart becomes sick. But if you ever find something real and substantial, something solid that fulfills you inside — it lives and breathes and grows just like a tree of life.
For most of us, however, it’s easier to become cynical and quietly desperate as our hope dries up with each unmet expectation in life. We end up feeling powerless to change ourselves, our circumstances, or other people. We hate ourselves for even wanting more or daring to hope that we might get what we long for. Unfortunately, even when we get what we wanted, it’s never enough.
King Solomon, the son who followed in his famous father David’s footsteps, was perhaps the most successful man who ever lived. He was world-renowned for his incredible wisdom, and he had enormous wealth and a thousand wives. Even though he thought those things would bring him fulfillment, all of it became meaningless to him. It even brought him to a place of depression and hating his life:
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun... So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. — Ecclesiastes 2:10–11, 17
The book of Ecclesiastes describes an unfulfilled life with raw honesty.
I’m convinced that it’s one of the most relevant, practical books in the Bible for us today. Like Solomon, we often find ourselves in the midst of incredible abundance — a good family, a nice home, a great job, plenty of food and drink, and more clothes than we’ll ever wear. And yet, we still find ourselves in the doldrums, stuck in place, going through the motions, and uncertain about how to break free to an authentic life filled with joy and purpose.
One of the reasons I find Ecclesiastes so comforting is that it gives voice to our feelings and describes the barriers that seem to lock us in place and prevent us from experiencing fulfillment in life. Right off the bat, Solomon expresses his frustration in a way many of us can relate to at the end of a long workday:
Everything is meaningless... completely meaningless!” What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?... The earth never changes. — Ecclesiastes 1:2–4 NLT
Some days it feels like nothing we do matters. And if nothing matters, why bother? Why even make the effort?
Of course, everyone has days like that. I feel that way, at least briefly, just about every Monday. Thinking back over our services the day before, I’m bound to ask myself, Now why did I say that? or Why did I put that song there? Then there are the times when I’ve been in the middle of a message series on parenting — at a time when my own teenager isn’t speaking to me.
Those are typical job hazards of a pastor, I guess. Yet if I focus only on what I and those around me can see, I can get moored in the doldrums pretty fast.
When we experience enough of these days, they begin to have a cumulative effect on our souls. We feel like we’re on a treadmill with no hope of getting off and moving forward:
The sun rises and the sun sets... The wind blows... Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea... Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. — Ecclesiastes 1:5–8 NLT
The cycle seems to continue, over and over again, with nothing changing as we go through the motions of each season. Too often life just wears us out, and no amount of sleep can relieve the weariness we carry inside.
At such times, nothing seems to bring much relief anymore, not sleep or new clothes or another vacation. We experience the law of diminishing returns. What we hoped would bring us joy isn’t cutting it anymore.
No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied; no matter how much we hear, we are not content. History merely repeats itself. — Ecclesiastes 1:8–9 TLB
We feel trapped in the lives we’ve chosen, contained by the sum of our choices in life.
- The old saying “Be careful what you wish for — you might get it” stings us with the reality that our lives feel empty even after we have all that we thought we wanted.
Don’t Lose Heart
While it’s comforting on one level to have Solomon articulate our worries and offer a rant that’s as timely as any blog entry today, we’re still left feeling stuck. For the substance of real hope that we long for, I believe we must look at someone whose life contrasts with Solomon’s in almost every way.
The apostle Paul was at the opposite end of the social, economic, and political spectrum from his poetic predecessor, yet he was clearly far more fulfilled in his life. With no real personal possessions, certainly no permanent home or accumulated wealth, Paul thrived in the windblast of God’s Spirit and sailed the adventure of a lifetime. Shipwrecked and imprisoned, beaten and belittled, the guy never lost sight of his first love, and this passionate commitment grounded him regardless of his circumstances. He wrote:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. — 2 Corinthians 4:16–18
Paul never lost heart. And neither should we. Why? Because what we see and experience around us is not all there is.
Solomon grasped at all the pleasures the world offered and ended up in despair. Paul tossed aside everything he possessed in favor of loving Christ and ended up with eternal riches — and an appreciation for God’s master plan.
Excerpted with permission from Breathe Again by Chris Hodges, copyright Chris Hodges.
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Your Turn
Don’t lose heart! This world won’t live up to our expectations or hopes and our plans may not go the way we wish, but there’s more going on than what we see. God’s master plan is bigger than we can imagine! ~ Devotionals Daily