It was Charles Dickens that wrote of it being "the best of times and the worst of times."  Insight like this really isn't rare as much as it is seldom stated so clearly.  We just have that very human tendency to focus on one reality or the other.  Would you believe there are people who discount the positive in their world in order to focus like a laser on the negative?  There are also those who ignore anything remotely unhappy in order to keep a smile going.  Life is never totally one or the other.  Human existance will always find us balancing conditions at either end of the spectrum.  Being healthy calls for more than a better attitude or efforts to remake the moment into one of our choosing.  God never says life will be easy.  But it is also true that God says it must be so hard we lose our grip.  How we manage the middle determines how we will do.

Being real means not overstating the negative nor underestimating the positive.  God remains still far beyond the situations of our times.  That is something to realize even when it causes problems along the way.  I am thinking of the person who may say that God is firmly entrenched with all power but cannot find a way to connect to Him.  My view is far too many church people sing of a God who is all powerful but is not related to daily events.  Our faith becomes more about what we believe rather than having God's living presence become valid.  Quotations of bible verses replaces the living capacity of the truth to transform us.  Nothing changes in our world when nothing changes in us.  We become like the popular monsters of our day. 

Zombies are replacing the traditional scary creatures in our media culture.  They are simply to be those who died yet are still moving about even if it is very slow.  I don't get zombies myself.  Surely even my slow body can outrun a shuffling partially dead thing.  But my original point is these new characters are not truly alive yet neither are they dead.  They stumble along trying to rob the living of their being.  We will be confronted with the temptation to live in a similar manner.  All of our trouble will accumulate until we cannot see past our pain.  God's purpose is lost within us just from feeling so bad.  Keeping up habits of spiritual growth will become unimportant in comparison to trying to feel better.  It does not take long for us to be so isolated or insulated from God that we become wanderers rather than biblical followers. 

Those negative emotions are contagious.  Far too many congregations suffer from years of experiencing abuse or damage even when it is self inflicted.  They sing songs but have no spirit.  They hear sermons with no intent to apply.  They meet in gatherings to talk about minute details of the organization with no idea of its spiritual loss.  They can simply be referred to as walking dead.  A miracle is required to bring new life to its being.  When the pain of staying where you are is greater than the pain of going with God then you are ready for such a miracle.  But are you there yet?  What more will it take for you to wake up? 

Bro. Trey

It occurs to me that we as believers can struggle with being real or honest.  Just to be open about where you are in life can be hazardous to your health.  This was a rough week around here.  It started with the death of a beautiful young woman with an entire life awaiting.  Explanations will be hard to find.  It is yet another of a long string of tragedies to affect my community.  Then we added disease when the stomach bug woke me up on Thursday morning.  Let me say that it was not as painful as others who were afflicted with this ailment.  I am grateful for that.  But here we are on Sunday night still waiting for my body to recover.  We piled on top of all of this defeat as the Texas Rangers fell short in their bid to be champions.  Pages will be written about how victory in game six was within the grasp only to be snatched away.  All of this adds up to make this week a bummer as people say.

I could probably add more to the list of issues but my point is simply that sometimes our world does not turn our way.  What we fail to see is how every obstacle that comes our way builds on others around us.  It will not take long until we are feeling the damage from the sum total of stress.  We become over extended in our activity without building the energy required to handle all of this.  Our temptation is to burn down, burn out or burn up.  Let me return to the original idea about being real.  When most people ask us about how we are doing our usual answer is to just say that we are fine.  Odds are good they may not really want to know about our troubles anymore than we want to rehearse them.  We learn to stuff them under another layer of pretending all is well while dying a little more on the inside.  Surely this is no way for a healthy person to live.

Insanity includes the denial of reality.  Those who cannot live with the current condition tend to find ways out on the mental or emotional level.  It is only my humble opinion that even believers fall prey to that trap when there is no outlet for pain.  Maybe we need reminding of why the Psalms speak to us in ways beyond words.  Even the great man David finds an outlet in times of uncertainty or loss.  His words echo our questions on reality at differing points of life.  Expressing our sorrows is one way God gives us to understand them.  We get to see or hear what it is we are feeling rather than burying it under the guise of being correct.  Letting it out can mean the risk of anger or tears but allow me to let you in on a secret.  The anger or tears will be there whether you go public or not. 

We are often told that we should be happy and smile no matter what.  My problem with this is you never can let God work a miracle in your heart when you pretend it is not broken.  There will be times when you feel like singing, "Victory in Jesus.'  There are other times you sing, "It is Well with My Soul."  Maybe we are scared if we ever hear someone answer with a word other than fine.  Maybe we are anxious about letting our guard down to tell another person of our messes.  I always wonder what in the world would happen in the usual congregation if there was an outbreak of being real?  No doubt in my mind but that it would be scary at first.  Imagine finally being free to be yourself with others and with God.  New paths would be traveled should that occur.  We would discover a whole new way of living.  Maturity would not need to be faked but would become authentic.  Maybe we need another night of reflecting on this topic.   Let's sleep on this while hoping for some answers tomorrow.

Bro. Trey

I heard about a stomach bug going around on Wednesday night.  Seems as if more than a few people in my town spent time way under the weather.  Thursday morning was when it arrived in my body.  Every joint ached even beyond normal.  I am lucky in that it did not have the same symptoms that are showing up in other people.  Yesterday and most of today was still spent in trying to feel better or reach some point of normal.  At least it is probably that a few pounds were lost over the last 48 hours.  My guess is that the frito pie is still off the menu for me at tonight's game.

None of this was a help during the baseball game last night.  My daughter and I stayed in constant communication during the four hours or more until the end.  Some people are calling it a classic game.  Try telling that to the fans of the team that lost.  It is difficult to win with all of the self inflicted mistakes by the Texas Rangers.  Some were physical errors but many of them were mental mistakes by various players.  Few can doubt how the Rangers should be celebrating today but they aren't.  Even fewer now believe that they will celebrate at the end of tonight's ballgame.  I know that my hopes are slim for a win.

Let me put it simply in light of the last 24 hours.  We face difficulty due to things we do not desire or even contribute to our pain.  Viruses of all types exist in our world.  Sin can be understood as the most harsh illness we face.  My guess is that few people who follow Jesus just set out to become sick with rebellion.  History shows us that it is still a reality.  Then we deal with those issues we bring on ourselves.  We often yield to sin as the door opens to even more bad decisions.  We miscalculate the conditions or fail to hear our divine instructions in living.  We end up with a mess beyond our ability to fix.  Depression leads to discouragement which is its own form or defeat.

Remember that our game of life is not over until God says so.  We either keep moving forward or simply stop where we are in the journey.  Keep trusting in God no matter how bleak life appears.  Setbacks need not be fatal.  Jesus teaches us that at the cross.  May we learn those lessons well.

Bro. Trey

Eleven years in one town is a long time no matter how you measure it.  It's long enough that you begin to forget some events that happened at the start.  People will mention something to me that long since slipped my mind.  Odds are good that age and the effects of chemo also contribute to this.  Eleven years is also long enough to go through experiences both good and bad.  It seems as if those negative times will always outweigh any positive.  I cannot imagine many small towns having an abundance of crisis or tragedy as takes place here.  People often take ill or even die but never does it seem to add up as much as in my town.  It does not happen in the traditional cycle of three but seems never ending.

We lost yet another young person today at far too young of an age.  I won't go into lots of details but it was a car accident.  Death once again comes too soon in our community.  Maybe it is me who is more sensitive to losses after going through an illness.  Some of it is the leftover guilt that wonders how I survived when others do not.  Logic tells me that there is no answer.  But it cannot slow the question from crossing my mind.  How do we find any semblance of sanity when events like this occur?  My guess is there are many people asking that tonight in our town.  The raw reality is there are few answers to that search.  Accidents happen.  Illness strikes us.  Tragedy strikes.  This is the human story.

Let me say at this point that one of the best things a minister can do is to spend time learning about death and dying.  I don't mean just a few lectures during a semester but to do a separate study devoted to that topic.  We will spend countless hours wrestling with issues that defy explanation.  Not everyone gets their full allotment of years without difficulty.  Sometimes the minister will be asked for more than superficial answers to questions.  What may surprise you is even our biblical quotations may not be enough.  Serious thinking is required to be effective in times of grief.  A tragedy such as this one today does not evaporate in a few days or months.  This is one that stays with you forever.  Today makes all of life different for each one touched by loss.

May we not be so quick or glib in throwing cliched quotations around to those who hurt.  Realize that simply being present can do more than what we say.  People truly mean well but they don't hear how what they say can be hollow.  We can be honest by simply answering that we neither know nor do we have all of the answers.  I don't think we are to be above the hurts of others as much as we can share their sorrows.  God doesn't mind our being truthful when we express genuine compassion.  Nothing we say can make the pain ever lessen much less go away.  That is God's job as He fills the broken hearted.  We can pray with every fiber of our being.  We can be there when others drift away.  We can listen or even join in the sharing of tears.  Jesus once wept due to grief around Him.  So we can be sure that He knows what each person needs in their experience of loss. 

Bro. Trey

If you read here often then you know that watching the World Series is taking up much of my time.  I was lucky that my daughter was home last weekend so we saw two of the games together.  I wanted to drive to Waco if the Rangers were close to winning it all but life is getting in the way.  We wanted to watch the team win together.  Baseball plays a huge part in our relationship.  It is not all we do but it is something we enjoy together.  You know all of this but we sure are enjoying this chance for our team to be champions of baseball.  It's still October and our team is still playing.  Life does not get much better than that.

There may be one thing that would be better.  Tomorrow is one of those new big days for me.  It will be one year since my doctor officially told me that I am in remission.  Those words still affect me today.  Some of my emotion is thrilled with that hope.  It very well may be true that my mind still doesn't totally wrap around that news.  There is the other part of me that is increasingly sensitive to others in their times of illness.  Some of this is due to that experience of guilt over surviving my disease.  Not many people talk about that but let me assure you that it happens.  So far my best approach is to just keep trying to live life to its fullest.  God knows what He is doing so I just trust that His will can reach others with hope. 

I am learning again how God intends to make His presence felt in our journey.  This is not to say that I have all of the answers.  Jesus told us how the Spirit will enter our life to make it a constant adventure.  Ceremony or ritual can never contain all God wishes to do in and through us.  We tend to settle for comfort rather than excitement.  This is not meant to sound mean but it is just human nature.  We do like the routine when the rivers of living water seem foreign to us.  Crisis tends to define our lives far more than the reality of God being in the present tense.  Maybe we can learn to celebrate God more than we dread another problem.  God does intend to great things for His own.  Just be sure He wants to start by working in us and not just for us.

Bro. Trey

Tomorrow night is the beginning of the World Series.  This is the final set of games to determine who will be the champion of professional baseball for the year.  Spring training began in the middle of February so its been a long season for the two teams remaining.  The first team to win four games will be declared the world champions of baseball.  I started way back in 1968 watching these games.  My memory is of getting home from school to watch baseball since they were day games back then.  This makes 43 years of watching the World Series.  I don't recall another one so hard to pick a team.

My very first experience was the year the St. Louis Cardinals were playing the Detroit Tigers.  That was a classic series that went the entire seven games.  You would want to know that the Cardinals are somewhat in my blood.  My dad's side of the family were huge fans long before I was born.  My love for the team grew from 1968 through the years.  I even have a wall hanging from a few years ago with four of the Cardinal players featured.  The one player that was my inspiration was Bob Gibson who pitched his entire career in St. Louis.  He was a fierce competitor on the mound.  I learned how to throw a high fastball at a batter from him.  Maybe it sounds mean but it can be fun also.  My point is that my Cardinals are once again in the World Series but my loyalty lies with the other team.

Who would ever imagine that the Texas Rangers would be in the World Series for two consecutive years?  It seems more incredible than a reality.  This team was absolutely horrible for most of its years.  Now we have a real chance of winning it all.  My daughter and I are enormous fans so that makes it even better.  We should get to watch a game or two together while she is home this weekend.  I don't know if they can beat the Cardinals but one can hope.  They are my team even with my long history with the opposition.  I will be rooting them on every game.  Winning the championship would be so amazing given their long line of futility. 

Baseball has little to do with the spiritual side of life most of the time.  It is one of the earthly pleasures I enjoy.  At least no matter who wins this year I can be happy about it.  All that is left is for the games to begin. 

Bro. Trey

Don't tell anyone but I really kinda like Halloween.  No, I do not approve or condone evil actions on any day.  No, I will not allow my kids to dress up in anything remotely violent.  No, I do not do satanic or other weird stuff for the holiday.  No, my church will not being marking the actual day but we do offer alternatives.  My enjoyment of Halloween is about old movies that try to scare you.  Again, my personal preference has no room for violence or gore in any fashion.  But what I do enjoy are the classic old movies that can still put a fright in you.  Now all we seem to get are movies that try to make our stomachs turn from the visuals without any thought to plot or story.

Some fear is a good thing to have.  What happens to far too many is that fear becomes a device for protecting self rather than taking a risk.  We may even be afraid of what God may do if we act on His word.  Scary is the idea of the person who talks of a trust in God while never taking any chances to obey Him.  People often are critical of those who participate in behavior outside narrow or legalistic views.  Part of following Jesus means we may be asked to do the radical.  This scares us when we don't really trust God to keep up with His end of our choices.  So it becomes safer to just stay comfortable than honestly obedient.

Church life loses much when people spend more time criticizing those who do believe God no matter how odd it may seem.  We end up pulling back rather than pushing forward.  Stones may be thrown by those who are fearful of anyone being different.  Scary is a lot of different things.  We should not fear being bold in our relationship with God.  Don't let anyone get in the way of your growth.  You can be better than the monsters that just do not understand.

Bro. Trey

Lots going on lately in my corner of the world.  My blogging time is taken up doing other stuff with work or at home.  Most of it revolves around projects that call for my attention with the workplace.  Home is doing much if not all of the daily chores.  You can call on me for many of the tasks around the house.  I could probably get a job as a housekeeper or nanny if this career falls short.  Busy is a good thing.  One thing to always guard against is allowing the schedule to crowd out your spiritual life.  Religious activity is never an excuse for drifting away from the heart of God.  Spiritual maturity is always intentional and not accidental.  Make time to spend alone with God no matter how crowded life becomes.

My daughter and I are having to experience the baseball playoffs apart from one another.  This is no fun at all.  At least our team is doing well so far.  They are not yet to the World Series but they are only one game away now.  Most of the games are pretty intense.  Close games may be fun to watch but they do little to settle the nerves.  But one of the benefits is if your team does something exciting or wins then you feel even more emotion.  The two of us do call each other when these moments take place.  Sharing something in common makes it all so much better.

I get lots of time with son now.  Something got my attention the other day.  Dad did something for him that pleased him greatly.  I enjoy doing stuff like this to surprise him.  One day it may be a new game brought home for him to play.  Another day may be to have a snack ready for him when he gets off the bus.  On this particular day he thanked me in his usual way.  He probably said thank you or something to that effect.  Whatever he said or did just made my heart sing.  It honestly brought a new sense of joy to my emotions.  My mind then wondered if too many believers do not know the simple joy of just being kind?   Do we get so wrapped up in our wants or needs that we forget our behavior with others?  When was the last time your heart felt that simple joy of doing something unexpected for another person?  Scripture tells us that service or ministry is just as important to our character as anything else we do.  Bible study divorced from better behavior is incomplete.  We will not change our world by remaining in holy huddles.  God desires to change our world through our actions.  That is enough to make both ours and His heart to sing.

Bro. Trey

Today was all about what is true and what is false when it comes to theology.  Covering the topic took two separate studies to deal with it.  If only either one of them had been remotely close to being a good study.  How we deal with truth determines much of how we live our faith.  Some who claim to follow Jesus tend to drift into dangerous areas of falsehood.  Others may hold to a set of beliefs that are technically correct but lack any spiritual fervor to make a difference.  Yet there are some who seem to get both of these issues straight which makes one a healthy believer.

One of the first thing Jesus warns His followers about is the fact that false teachers would creep into their midst to distract believers from maturity.  History proves Jesus to be correct.  Several of our epistles tell us that false theology made gains even in the very first century of the church.  It never ceases to amaze me that variations of that falsehood still pop up in our culture.  Humanity has a way of just recycling the same strange teachings over and over.  Simon Peter will tell his readers that man's tendency for the counterfeit does not change over time.  Perhaps we remain the same as people no matter how the years go by.

Seems to me that those who believe in the truth of the gospel should be cautious in how they relate with those who do not.  We tend to be somewhat arrogant in our answers rather than humble in our grace.  It was just last week that a Baptist minister made headlines by denouncing the faith of a presidential candidate.  My problem is not at all that I do not agree with the idea.  What bothers me is how believers tend to come off sounding proud without explaining our stance.  This may be just something that bothers me.  I will never be asked to endorse anyone of any fame.  There is little reason to expect that my comments or even my writings will be well known.  I would like to think that my approach to issues like this would be flavored with some grace that comes from God.  My faith is fairly secure but there is always room for more growth.  Is it enough to be conservative if we sound callous in our pronouncements?

Not every friend of mine share every single detail of my faith.  I may disagree with my Pentecostal friends on the activity of the Holy Spirit but I am grateful for them.  My mainline friends may do things different that I do but my desire is for them to grow in faith.  I even know some Church of Christ folks that mean the world to me but shouldn't there be room for encouragement without dissension?  Truth is a reality no matter how loud we shout of how hard we bang the table.  So much of our discussions seem aimed at proving another person wrong rather than discovering what makes each of us strong.  I know this may sound odd coming from someone who tries to teach scripture for a living but it is where I am.  My heart and mind is weary of all of our attempts to keep the truth in its purest form.  God's truth is pure regardless of our opinions.  It may need less defending and more discovering for our own journey.

Bro. Trey

All of us go through times that we think will not end.  To be honest, some people seem to enjoy going through hard times.  They will tell you constantly of how much more difficult their life is than yours.  You will never get me to understand that syndrome even though it exists.  Some of us do go through truly painful experiences that seem to have no expiration date.  I learned this the hard way in 2010.  What surprised me is how resilient a person can become even when being poisoned as part of treatment.  It just becomes something you do in order to be better.  We do have a few of our people here in the church going through such experiences.  But most of us face times that can be even worse because of its nature.

Having really huge adversity thrown at you is never fun but you can find ways to cope or survive.  I think what can be more dangerous are the times when small things pile up without any relief in sight.  What happens is one small or somewhat small obstacle rises up only to be followed by another.  None of it is fatal but it becomes a huge weight on the soul.  We are like the ancient story of pushing one boulder up a hill then having another come along right behind it.  We may not be diagnosed with a terminal illness but we just don't feel well.  Our finances may not be wiped out but it seems as if something always needs to be paid.  Relationships may not be destroyed but there is a constant tension always tearing at our heart.  No matter how hard we try it just appears we make no real progress to change things.

This is one of those moments for me.  Work is hectic as we try to do a few new things along with our search for a new staff member.  This is not all bad but it does take up time normally used for other things.  Life at home is just as frazzled without my daughter who always is a huge help.  Again, this is not all bad but it does offer more to the usual workload.  Then my youngest had a bad day at school yesterday.  He is my best buddy so it hurts me when things go wrong.  Again, this is not totally bad as he learned a few lessons for the future.  Maybe you get my point now.  Most of this is just stuff that happens but when it builds up it does wear a person down.  It's hard to see beyond all of the crisis or to keep a Godly focus.

What are we to do?  Giving up is not an option.  Way too many people just skip out on responsibility to escape the stress.  No one ever said life is easy.  It surely is never said in scripture that believers will take a comfortable path to heaven.  Glib answers are not enough to really make things better.  I am one who does believe God may give us more than we can bear on our own.  My view is that He does this to clarify our priorities to give Him more room to operate.  Why would we ever need to trust God if we can do it all ourselves?  The believer can be sure that God does have a purpose for all of this.  He is never finished with shaping our character.  We always have aspects of our life in need of being refined to His image.  My main idea during these times is not to ask when it will come to an end.  We ask what will God do with these experiences to make us more like Him. 

Bro. Trey

Most people who know me or read this blog know how technology is just not my thing.  Computers are way past my intelligence unless it is just hunting and clicking.  If someone starts talking about the workings of technology they also will notice how my eyes glaze over.  All of this is truly fascinating but I missed out on much of the information to understand its workings.  My first awareness of a computer was years ago when they were barely in the infancy stage.  It was about fifteen years later before one actually resided in my house.  I had to take college classes just to begin to make any sense of how to use the machine.  My skills are not much improved from those days.  No one can doubt how significant these devices are now for daily life.  We moved from personal computers to cell phones to other things that occupy our time.  You just cannot imagine a world without all of this.

One of the driving forces behind our digital age died tonight.  Steve Jobs founded Apple company back in the 1970s.  It is amazing to watch or read the stories about his life.  He was once let go by his original company only to return years later to save it from failure.  There is no part of this computing age that does not bear his imprint in some form or fashion.  Most people use a cell phone that is either one of his creations or similar to it.  Many now use devices that can manage their life from a small pad.  Even the use of a computer mouse can be traced to his innovation.  Cancer and all of its symptoms finally caught up with him.  I really hate this disease.  But there is one upside to this story.  Cancer may take a physical life but it cannot extinguish how a person lives.

If you read or watch stories on this man then one thing you will notice is how he makes an effect on our modern world.  Technology owes him a huge debt of gratitude.  I found it interesting that one of his motivations was to make all of this information easier to use for the average human being.  You no longer need a college degree in science to use the average computer or other device.  Most of what we take for granted on the modern computer is an invention of his.  This is one of those rare individuals whose contribution to life or culture will be felt for decades.  He once said that people are born to make a dent on the universe.  I may not understand all of what he did in the technical sense but I can see how he made a dent.

My mind wonders why we as believers do not make our marks with life.  I fully realize that not all of us are meant to be as big as Steve Jobs.  But it seems to me that our life can still count as it helps others be better.  Not all of us can lead big corporations but we can still matter to others.  We may not get world wide attention upon our passing but we can still leave a legacy behind.  Ours is the great gift of the Holy Spirit to make up for what we lack.  Ours is a divine calling that starts upon our following Jesus.  God knows that not all of us may be as famous as this pioneer but He intends for our life to count to eternity.  I mourn Jobs passing for his family and his legacy.  I also mourn how ever many legacies were not given because followers of Jesus resisted that call to follow Him.  How much of what God is doing in our world would cease if you died?  It's a good question that challenges us for an answer.

Bro. Trey

Just a quick thought about life as it relates to baseball.  Watching these playoff games can do a number on your nerves.  My team won today even though there were more than a few moments of great tension.  They were behind for a long time until scoring four runs in the seventh inning.  Holding onto that lead was not easy.  I wanted to watch but would also turn away just due to the nervous feeling that comes from a tight ballgame.  You would think that such a game would be exciting to watch.  Maybe there are times when the excitement becomes too much?  You get wrapped up in every pitch or play.  My heart would do the proverbial leap into the throat when times got tough.  Winning the contest was a mixture of elation and relief.  Now we get to do it all over again tomorrow.

Wouldn't it be easier to watch a game after you already know that your team wins?  Sure it would be much less stress but where is the fun in that?  Not knowing what may take place in sports is one of the reasons so many watch.  Any team can beat another team on any given day.  It's why we root for the underdog or why upsets capture our imagination.  We never saw some outcome as even possible yet it happens.  I like to watch old games that are shown on cable.  Many times I already know the final score.  It brings back pleasant memories but it is not nearly the same as watching it live.

Here is my spiritual point.  Most believers will defend their faith in the return of Jesus to the top of their lungs.  We do know what happens in the end even if we do not know the when.  So why is it that so few actually participate in the action now?  The same individuals who sing or state their faith in the second coming are sometimes people who do little now.  It's as if knowing we win means we don't have to be involved in the mission now.  Let me go one step further.  Why does it seem like some who believe in the return of Jesus take such little time to get to know Him?  Meeting a loved one after a time apart is far different than meeting a stranger.  Jesus desires to be known and obeyed now.  It may not lessen the tensions of life but it will make it all much more enjoyable. 

Bro. Trey

Let me confess to missing my daughter even more during these baseball playoffs.  One thing done right in being a dad is turning my girl into a true baseball fanatic.  We even get into the games when our team is not in the playoffs.  You can only imagine how excited we were last year in going to two of the post season games.  Nothing could ever be better than our getting to attend the fifth game of the World Series last year.  It was November yet we were at a ballgame.  Now we have to text or call each other at points of the games.  We did that a lot on Saturday during the game.  Our team won so it made for pleasant conversations.  But there is still a feeling of disappointment in watching the playoffs without her.

Wouldn't life be easier if that were the only source of disappointment?  You and I know how life tends to have more than a few moments like that.  Disappointment is that emotion borne of unmet expectations.  There is a sense that we are getting the short end of the stick.  Sometimes it may happen because the behavior of others does not match our desire.  You can have times like this when the events of your world do not come to pass as you wished.  We end up feeling sad because our hopes or wishes just do not match up with reality.  Anger may even play a role in disappointment.  You may become mad that someone let you down due to the results of that action.  Depression can follow should you feel helpless to do anything to change the situation.  You move from just being sad to perhaps letting those feelings define life.

It is true that disappointment can be a self inflicted wound.  This is not always the case but it is always possible.  Your expectations may be out of line with reality in terms of people or even with your plans.  It may also be valid that you expect more of yourself than is legitimate.  One of the key steps of dealing with disappointment is to determine who is to blame.  But just remember that the goal really is not to fix the blame but to fix the greater problem.  Also realize that you may not be the best person to reach that conclusion.  Your feelings may cloud a better judgement when it comes to these things.  I don't know that anyone can face disappointment in a healthy manner without God's help.  He sees and knows all so it is a given that His perspective will be much better.

Disappointment does not have to be a negative experience.  You can use those times to evaluate why you live with particular expectations.  Are your desires truly fair for others?  Ask whether or not your wants are rooted in reality.  Never forget that people tend to let other people down far too often.  It may not seem right or fair but it is true.  Let God work through your mind and heart to center your expectations in His reality.  Odds are good that all of us could use some adjustment in how we view our world.  Time may be required for getting past disappointment.  Sometimes we need to wait on God to complete His work in life.  What may seem a setback may actually become a springboard for greater grace.  Remaining in fellowship with God is essential to see His purpose through until the end.  And never forget that disappointments can be God's way to increase His presence in our life.  We turn to Him in our hurts to discover a greater help in our time of need.  The irony is that our greatest discoveries can be born of our biggest disappointments. 

Bro. Trey