Walking Through Disappointment

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. – Psalm 16:11

This past weekend, we were supposed to get up to three inches of snow. As a lover of snow and cold weather (and as someone who grew up in Georgia where snow rarely happened), I could barely contain my excitement. The snow was supposed to fall in the early Saturday morning hours, so I was fully expecting to wake up, look out our bedroom window, and see our backyard covered in a powdery white blanket.

But when I climbed out of bed on Saturday morning and opened the curtains, my heart sank. There wasn’t even a patch of snow in sight. The only thing that had fallen overnight was a heck of a lot of rain, leaving our backyard soaking wet, and my heart pretty darn disappointed.

A few minutes later, I checked the weather app on my phone, and it turned out that the snow had missed us by about 10 miles. We were so close to getting the snow I had hoped for, just not close enough.

As I reflected on my snowless weekend, my heart began to hurt for my friends who are struggling with their own disappointments.

Maybe today, that’s where you find yourself, feeling weighed down by disappointment and unmet expectations.

Maybe you were hopeful that the person you were dating was going to end up being the person you would marry. The relationship was going well. Things seemed promising, until out of nowhere, the rug got pulled out from under you. You were close, just not close enough.  

Maybe you have been applying for jobs and finally came across an opportunity that seemed perfect for you. You nailed your interviews. You seemed like a perfect fit for the position, but they ended up going with a different candidate. You were close, just not close enough.

Maybe you tried to rekindle or repair an old friendship. You reached out. You had hard conversations. You did your part to move towards restoration, but in the end, your efforts weren’t reciprocated. You were close, just not close enough.

I could list a hundred other instances if we had time. Disappointment is something we all face, and we face it more often than we would prefer.

There are few things worse than feeling excitement and hopeful expectation about something in your life, only for things to not turn out the way you thought they would.

If that’s how you’re feeling today, friend, I want you to know you’re not alone. I know how you feel. I’ve been there. I’ve been weighed down by the same burden. And if I’ve learned anything about disappointment, it’s that even though it’s never an easy pill to swallow, it’s a heck of a lot easier to walk through when Jesus is walking through it with you.

There are a lot of really incredible things about Jesus. He loves us unconditionally. He is kind. He is compassionate. He is understanding. He is empathetic. He is gracious. He is merciful. He is forgiving. I could keep going.

But one of my favorite things about Jesus is that He’s always present. He’s never unavailable. He’s never not paying attention. He’s always right by our side.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m struggling with disappointment, I want to know that I’m not struggling alone. And when you’ve given your life to Jesus, you can have full confidence that He will never, ever leave you alone.

So if you’re walking through your own season of disappointment, I hope that you’ll find comfort in the presence of Jesus. If He feels distant, ask the Holy Spirit to make His presence known to you. I promise you He’ll do it. And as you continue on your way, I pray that you’ll find everything you need in your ever-present Savior, Jesus.