If disappointment sets in
A Christian Science perspective.
We’ve all done it – decided on a certain outcome to a situation and clung to it like a dog with a bone. In fact, sometimes we don’t make any room in thought for anything but the way we want things to go. And then when it doesn’t happen in that way? We are likely to be disappointed.
I’m not just talking about life’s bigger issues that involve our homes, jobs, and relationships, but the smaller expectations in daily life. One day, after I was feeling crestfallen over a disruption to the day’s plan that was really inconsequential in the bigger picture, it occurred to me that maybe these minor but a little-too-often disappointments were about to break my spirit.
I resolved to do better through prayer, and I knew that God would show me how to reject disappointment and to see it for what it is – powerless. I prayed to understand that disappointment has no power, and that cherishing human outcomes has no power to blind me to God’s plan of abundant goodness. I also acknowledged God’s goodness as spiritual law, and that there is no material law to outdo – or undo – it.
Christ Jesus was clear when he said to his disciples, “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me” (Luke 22:29), rendered in “The Message,” “Now I confer on you the royal authority my father conferred on me.”
And what is that authority? We, too, like the disciples, have been given this freeing and powerful promise and bond. We have been appointed a “kingdom,” a spiritual authority that governs our entire thought and experience, and gives us dominion over whatever would interfere, be it discouragement, disappointment, or disabling of any sort. We are established in God’s kingdom, where harmony is law. God has bestowed on each of us the full measure of joy, serenity, and freedom, no matter what the circumstances.
The prefix “dis” denotes a separation or parting from, which, in the case of dis-appointment, means that we could be separated from our spiritual designation as wholly complete ideas of God – our only real being. I’ve found it helpful to acknowledge in prayer our permanent place and purpose to express the character of God as the warmth of Love, the intelligence of Mind, and the purity of Spirit.
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science and founded the Monitor, wrote these wise words: “The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 322). Stepping aside from disappointment that shuts the door on infinite possibility, and turning to divine Love, enables us to feel Love’s sweet presence, which opens the way to meeting all human needs in unimaginable ways. In the arms of divine Love, we can expect and enjoy God’s goodness that defines and governs our moments, our days, our lives. Doesn’t this ensure the lessening of disappointment?