Dealing with Disappointments

 

We continue to sink and settle into the Parable of Prodigal-ness that is the good news of gospel medicine to our lives.  Last week we got through verses 11-13 in this story.  Good Lord, you are thinking, at this rate this series of Morning Meditations is going to last the rest of the year!   This week, I want us to step into the sandals of each character in the story to see our own story is waiting us for there.  One of the threads and themes that tethers this family together (beside their DNA) is dealing with disappointments.

 

Wait…pause with me.  My guess is that you have disappointments in your life.  I don’t know anyone who says, “Welp, I was born, got straight A’s in school, breezed through college, had the best job ever, and now I am retired early living the dream.”  While that might be the story we post online, that isn’t the reality we live.  We all have valley moments when we sit by a pool of our own tears.  We all have un-grieved griefs in our life.  Maybe it is a friendship that ended abruptly, and we still don’t know why the other person ghosted us.  Maybe it is a marriage that ended despite hours of counseling.  Maybe it is the woundedness of words that someone said that have never quite healed. 

 

I believe the Mothering-Father and two sons are each dealing with disappointments.  One runs away physically, one sulks away leaving emotionally even as he still receives mail at that same address, and one waits prayerfully and persistently. 

 

I invite you this morning to hold a disappointment you are carrying this Lent.  It might be something in your family, friendship, the place you volunteer, or if you want to be vulnerable ~ a disappointment with yourself!  Oh, I have a whole box in the corner of my soul for that particular category.  Our minds might naturally go to disappointments with society or government or the church ~ and those are valid.  But sometimes we deal with the disappointments out there so that we don’t face the shadow side within us.  Because this is a parable about family, I want you to ponder prayerfully the relationships closer to home and your heart.  How would you describe one disappointment you’ve been carrying?  What emotions are evoked and provoked ~ anger or grief or flummoxed frustration that festers or numbness or ache…try to make a list.  What has been the timeline for this disappointment ~ chart it on a piece of paper.  Where are you now with this disappointment?  Sometimes the relationships are so shattered no amount of superglue will put the pieces back together.  Sometimes we deal with the other person by a harsh tone that has an icy chill to it.  Sometimes we put on a mask that says, “Everything is fine…nothing to see here.”  Even as our inside is simmering and about to boil over.  Is there any next right step?  Hold these disappointments of life as we step into the parable about the prodigal-ness of our own life that God holds as holy.  Amen.