There is;
To everything, a season
To every purpose, a time:

To live and to die
To plant and to pluck

To kill and to heal
To break and to build

To weep and to laugh
To mourn and to dance

To scatter and to gather
To embrace and to avoid

To win and to lose
To get and to give

To tear and to sew
To speak and to listen

To love and to hate
To fight and to unite

There is
To every thing
The right time.

Do you have expectations? Can you identify them when they appear before you? It is hard to identify what you don’t know or have not nurtured. It is almost impossible to celebrate what you don’t value or to be grateful for what you don’t appreciate. However, when your heart has nurtured a dream and it comes to pass, you rejoice exceedingly and praise with understanding. The laugher bubbles from within and spreads across your face. The excitement rings through your entire system and your body heaves the sigh of joy. Nothing feels good like seeing and handling the reality of something that was once a desired and expected dream.

We are all entitled to dream. Hope is the ration of every living soul. If you don’t have a dream, it’s nobody’s fault. If you are hopeless, life cannot be blamed. Truth is that nobody on earth has stress-free life. As the earth rotates, so challenges go, from person to person. Yet, despite the blasts and storms, behind the troubles and traumas, there is always a joy within that cannot be stolen, and a blessing left within the ashes of what may appear to have consumed us. Many of us miss those blessings because we are too quick to write off our experiences, especially the ones that don’t fit our scale of pleasant and memorable. We are in a hurry to forget pains, embarrassments, and the likes. Yet, hidden behind every good and bad, is something worth learning, worth keeping, worth enjoying, and worth sharing.

I have lived through times of great expectations where disappointment taught me that wisdom is to protect my heart and expect no more. Failure promises that if we don’t expect, we won’t be disappointed. I bought that gospel one time and lived it for quite a season. I learned that without hope we merely exist – there is no life without hope. Existing in hopelessness is not fun. Living without expectation is both boring and tiring. Those who have nothing to look forward to spend their life looking back and those who keep looking back rarely get ahead.

I had allowed myself to grow used to living without expectation as means of guarding my heart. My conclusion was that if I don’t expect, I won’t be disappointed so if anything happens, it would be a pleasant surprise. But on the lane of no expectation, pleasant surprises are rare. I walked that path long enough to learn that expectation is part of living, that the fear of disappointment shouldn’t steal it from us because then, it robs us of the fun in living. I walked that path until God orchestrated relationships that helped me confront the fear of disappointment that had forced me into the shell of minimalist lifestyle.

You can’t bypass your fears. You can sneak around them every now and then but you can’t thrive in a fearful atmosphere. Until you confront your fears, you can’t overcome them. It is one thing to be helpless – help is often not what you can control but hopelessness is different. Hopelessness is not about what others could or not, did, are doing, or will do to us. Hopelessness is about what we allow of what was done, of what is being done, and of what will be done. It is about where we choose to stand, how we choose to see them. We might not be able to do much to helplessness but we can sure choose where we stand on hope – to be full of it or to have less and less until none of it.

Life has its times and seasons. Without expectation, men miss their times and their seasons. Hope empowers us with eyes that see, ears that hear, hearts that understand, feet that can stand, and tongues that can speak life and grace and glory into the good, the bad, and the absurd that comes our way. Being hopeful puts us in position to recognize opportunities when they pass, to grab what is ours and not let go, until we have made the most that each season has to offer. In this new season, may your heart be full of hope and courage so you can discern as you explore and exploit the seasons.

Glory!