Always Anticipating...

I have been counting down the days until my family leaves for the beach. To be honest, I have been counting down the days to vacation since my last vacation. I love my trips to the beach, they are a time of solace and regeneration. There is something special about the vastness of the ocean when I look at it, it just goes on and on and you can’t see where it ends, and in reality it doesn’t. it reminds me of the power and the intricacy of God.

                I think we spend a lot of time counting down the days, anticipating something to happen.

                My kids have been counting down the days until the end of school, and now it is here. Sumer break is finally upon us.

                I talked to a gentleman yesterday, who asked me to pray for his friend, Sabrina. She is in jail and counting down the days to her release date.

                Most months I count down the days to payday so we have some spending money, only to do the same thing again next month.

                My niece is counting down the days to her wedding.

And every child I know counts down the days to their birthday, though at some point we stop doing that.

                I talked with a woman this week who is looking forward to being reunited with her husband. He is heaven.

                We seem to be always in a state of waiting on the next thing to happen, looking forward to the next event, the next trip, the promotion, next phase in our life. We are in a constant state of anticipation.

                The stories of the Bible are stories of waiting on the next thing to happen, too. These are our stories also, we find ourselves in the midst of them just as clearly today as the people whom were in the very middle of them thousands of years ago.

                The exodus is the primary event of the Jewish faith showing not only God’s power through miraculous events but also His love for His people by taking them from captivity and bringing them into a new land of freedom with a purpose. The exodus was a time of anticipation. The people anticipated being set free from Egyptian slavery, then after decades in the wilderness they anticipated a new promised land, and then years later they anticipated a restoration to this land.

                The prophets that we read in the Old Testament relate an anticipation of a Messiah to deliver them from their oppression. And when Jesus does arrive on the scene, most of the people who have been talking about anticipating Him are the very ones who don’t recognize Him for who He is.

                Maybe that’s an interesting thing about anticipation. We get so wrapped up in what we think we are anticipating, what we have in our minds will happen, when we expect, that we are not prepared for the unexpected.

                The beginning of the book of Acts tells the story of Jesus’ ascension. This is after Jesus was crucified, had died, and was buried, but then He rose on the 3^rd day (Surprise! Most people weren’t expecting that to happen), and then after a period of 40 days He told his followers that He was leaving again but that He would return. And then He was taken up into the clouds…talk about anticipation!

                “They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them… “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go” (Acts 1:10-11).

                And so we anticipate Jesus’ return. We are not alone in this waiting, God is with us. God’s very Spirit has been given to every believer as a Comforter in this waiting. And we wait with others.

                But we can’t wait just staring up at the sky.

                We are all waiting for so many things today; healing, reconciliation, the doctor’s prognosis, forgiveness from the person we hurt, a child to finally come home, for the pain to end, for Jesus to return.

                But here’s the deal, sometimes by only anticipating tomorrow we are missing today. You have been given today, this right here right now, as a gift of grace by God. Don’t just stare up into the clouds waiting on something amazing to happen, look around you today and you will see there are already amazing and beautiful things happening. Live in this moment. Thank God for this moment. Experience this moment as what you were anticipating. And then let God guide your expectations, and set your heart and your mind to His beauty and grace.