An Invitation to Trust: Snow, Shoulds & Prophets

In the Gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus doing ministry and caring for those around him—sending out the disciples to preach the good news, healing those in the community from various diseases, and announcing a new kind of kingdom to the people.  It was more and more clear that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. But that didn’t stop some from questioning if He really was the One the Jews had awaited for.  This included his own cousin, John the Baptist, who had been there from the very beginning.  Imprisoned, John sent two of his own disciples to ask Jesus if He was “the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:2). It’s clear that John the Baptist had an idea and expectation of how the Messiah of Israel should be. 

Jesus told John’s disciples to tell him this response, echoing Jesus’ call to ministry from Isaiah 61.  He said “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”  Jesus’ response communicated that He was indeed the One, even if He didn’t meet John’s or other Jews’ expectations of how Messiah was to act and redeem.  Instead, Jesus called his cousin to trust—trust that Jesus would indeed do Messiah-esque things in the fashion in which He was to do them. 

Here at The Refuge, we’re in the middle of winter.  And while this time of year usually brings with it a couple of feet of snow, our winter storms this year have so far brought a great amount of rain.  Snow is still happening; it’s just happening further up the mountain.  I (David) must admit that the meager six inches of cumulative snowfall we’ve received this winter has been disappointing. 

It hit me the other day that my disappointment reveals an expectation that I believe things are supposed to happen a certain way.  It’s January, so there should be snow.  And if I’m honest, I’ll see that I have that expectation in other places of my life.  Those people are part of this group, so they should act this way, for instance. I’m this old now so life should be like this.  Like John the Baptist, I also have shoulds and expectations of how life is supposed to be, piling up like snowdrifts on my soul. 

And as I’m confronted with these shoulds and expectations, Jesus’ invitation to me—and you—is to trust.  To hope.  Trust that God is constantly at work even when I don’t see it or when the happenings of life don’t meet my expectations.  Hope that His goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever as David experienced in Psalm 23.    

Lord, help me to trust you when things don’t appear to be going as I expect them to you.  May I release the shoulds I have of how I expect things to go so that I may dwell more deeply in Your goodness and mercy.  Amen.

In your spiritual walk, do you ever expect things in your life or with God to be a certain way? What do you do when you realize you’re trying to make things differently than how God might want them to be? Post in the comments below.