Psalm 40:5 “O Lord, our God, no one can compare with you. Such wonderful works and miracles are all found with you! And you think of us all the time with your countless expressions of love— far exceeding our expectations!” (The Passion Translation)

I’m glad that God can exceed our exceptions because it can be so frustrating when we’re let down by expectations that don’t come close to being met.  

A couple of weeks ago my wife, Missy, and I were able to get away for a week to a pastors’ conference in Fort Myers, Florida. It seems lately that I keep hearing of people traveling to Florida to get away from the cold and bask in the warm sunshine. Sadly, that wasn’t the weather that met us upon arrival!  The temperature was colder than Colorado when we left, and the wind seemed to be unrelenting. Yeah, we were grateful that we packed a couple of jackets, but we still felt ill-prepared for staying warm.  

The second major let down was the AirBNB situation we landed. The exact location wasn’t known until after we booked it and was actually about forty-five minutes outside the city of Fort Myers, which was the city we were looking to stay!  By the time we realized that, the cancelation fee wasn’t worth the hassle, so we gave it a go. Upon arrival to the “beach house” that was one hour away from the beach, we SO wished we had just bit the penalty and found a local hotel!  This king-sized bedroom wasn’t worth half the price the lady charged with a joke for a kitchen, a mattress sitting on a slab of wood and a door to the connecting hallway duct taped and partially covered by a bookshelf by the bed. What we thought was a kitchen pantry actually had turned out to be the closet, so the ultimate shock came when we were looking for where the bathroom might be hidden. 

If you are ever thinking about dividing out a house into AirBNB apartments, please don’t ever do this to people. I beg of you! The owner had turned a sliding door closet into a bathroom!  To sit on the toilet, you had to navigate the knee into the corner, and in success of that position, I could literally lean my head on the wall in front of me. Seriously, no exaggeration here! The other end of the “bathroom” was something attempting to be a shower with curtains on multiple sides that seemed to cling to your body as your shower activities commenced. Again, nothing worse than unmet expectations! Can you relate?  

After a year like we’ve all just experienced, it seems that unmet expectations happen far too often as we reach out to grab onto something worth believing in. This life is notorious for offering us the world and then pulling the carpet out from underneath us as we try to stand on something stable.  But in the midst of our pain and frustrations, the psalmist calls us to lift up our eyes and focus on the One who will never disappoint or let us down.  

Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”  (New King James Version)The Apostle Paul declares that He is an exceedingly, abundantly, above kind of God!

I’m praying that each of you will experience Him this month in a very tangible way. Knowing that He has promised to never leave or forsake you, may He surprise you with moments that are uniquely orchestrated to restore your soul and make you feel loved.