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The trap of unrealistic expectations and how to avoid it

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The trap of unrealistic expectations and how to avoid it

One of the biggest reasons people give up is unrealistic expectations.

And there are all kinds of these. Some of them are even reasonable. For instance, my wife has a number of quite understandable expectations of me that for various mysterious reasons may never be met. At least not this side of heaven!

All joking aside, though, unrealistic expectations can be an absolute killer. When I met with people coming into our church, I always made a point of saying they probably had some expectations that would never be fulfilled, if only because no church is perfect.

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When hearing God's voice may save your life

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When hearing God's voice may save your life

It was very early on a wintry Saturday morning about three years ago. I had set off for an event I was speaking at. I had driven for about twenty minutes without passing a single vehicle.

Often I use time alone in the car to pray. As I was praying, and without any warning, I heard a voice speaking to me. The words were clear as crystal: “Danger ahead, slow down.” If it wasn’t audible to my ears, it was sharply audible to my spirit.

I have learned not to analyze words God speaks. If you analyze, you place your own reasoning above God’s, and you’ll miss it. My instant mental reaction was to question. After all, with no one out and a clear road, what could the danger be? But I obeyed.

The tempest

The tempest

Where is God in the tempest?

One brief digression to William Shakespeare before I give the answer.

This week we went to see a production of The Tempest.  It was Shakespeare’s last play.  The plot is simple.  A nobleman (in this case played by a woman) is exiled unjustly by his enemies to a remote island.  He studies magic and eventually conjures up a massive storm which causes all his enemies to be shipwrecked on the island.  But at the moment he is about to take vengeance on them, he chooses instead to have mercy.  He forgives them all, destroys his books of magic and the play ends with everyone reconciled and on their way home.

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How to deal with your non-perfect church

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How to deal with your non-perfect church

People get disgruntled. I’ve had a number of conversations in the last few weeks with people from different churches. All of them appreciated their church, but all were struggling with deficiencies. Some of the folk were in leadership positions and others weren’t.

At one level, dealing with this kind of thing is a no-brainer. As the old saying goes, if you ever find a perfect church, you’ll ruin it as soon as you join it.

But we need to start asking ourselves a number of questions when doubts arise as to whether we’re in the right place.

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Why no revelation about Revelation is dangerous to our faith

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Why no revelation about Revelation is dangerous to our faith

This summer I’ve been teaching a post-graduate course on Revelation. My students are great learners and hopefully will be great teachers. Each of them in their own way is getting it.

But this thought has often come to me: why is it that so many Christians badly misunderstand the last book of the Bible?

And if it doesn’t make sense to us, what do we do? We throw our hands up in the air, make a joke of it (uneasily perhaps), and walk away.

What if we tried that with the Gospels or Romans? It wouldn’t leave us with much understanding of our faith, would it? What we need to understand is that our lack of understanding of Revelation affects our ability to understand the Christian faith far more deeply than we think.