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December 31, 2004
On Expectation
Much of the sanity of our daily life hinges on both the concious and unconcious expectations we place on either man or machine throughout any given day. Coffee makers can be set to brew at a specific time, the internal combustion engine can be counted on to fire and as Tom Hanks so eloquently put it in 'Castaway', 'the sun will rise.' Now at the very acknowledgement of these examples a fallacy so innocently occurs that if not careful one could overlook it easily. Before I elucidate further on the subject let's look deeper into what expectation actually means.
The verb expect has four major definitions, three that are quite similar and one that stands out on it's own:
- a. to look forward to the probable occurrence or appearance of
b. to consider likely or certain - To consider reasonable or due
- To consider obligatory; require
- Informal: To presume; suppose.
Definitions one, two and four all function on the foundation of assumption and/or probability; we act not with 100% certainty but with what could be considered all likely-hood. For example, if you wanted to place an order at a restaurant one could expect that a member of the wait staff would be a good choice than say, the man with a mop cleaning the bathroom. The expectations of this variety are built upon our life experiences and prior interactions that had earlier taken place in similar situations. They in turn form the infrastruction that dictate the way we instinctively act (think Pavlov's dogs) and are sometimes defined as both routine and habit. I could go on in further detail on this subject but it is the third definition, and it's implications, that the subject of this essay will address.
Lets take a look at the two operative words in the third definition in greater detail:
Obligation: the constraining power of a promise, contract, law or sense of duty.
Require: to call for as obligatory or appropriate; demand.
I encounter expectations of this kind on a far more frequent basis then of those that hinge on mere probability. The aforementioned fallacy that exists in this third definition is that I would propose that there is nothing that one can every truly expect with a 100% certainty. The unmitigated notion that two separate individuals could ever have the exact same expectations is highly unlikely due to the subjective nature of the billions of separate conciousnesses that exist simultaneously and the even more numerous situations that created the foundations for each of their individual expectations . Even with our own creations, whether mechanical or virtual, the rate and frequency with which they fail is equally unpredictable. More unreliable still are the patterns of nature evidenced by the recent tsunami that devetasted India just days ago. We are warranted to place assumptions on what may happen but have no reasonable justification to claim that we will know exactly what WILL happen. Take this illustration for example: If every Saturday you had plans to meet a good friend for lunch whom has always been exactly on time you might expect that the following weekend they would be there waiting at your usual table at noon. However, their punctuality is based only partly on their actions and equally, if not more, on the extraneous circumstances of whether or not their car would start in the morning and that an accident was not blocking the route they usually take, et cetera.
However, if you, like me, claim to have a faith in Jesus Christ there is a handful of things one can certainly expect: the atonement for ones sins (Hebrews 2:16-18), the certainty of their salvation (Romans 1:16-17) and the second coming of Christ (John 2:18-22).
Side Note: If you are not a Christian you could argue that there is no justifiable reason for accepting this over the claims found in any other work. You argument is sound and though we may disagree on premise I would say your contention is absolutely valid. However, the length and effort with which it would take to academically explicate my reasons for the integrity of Scripture would be far too lengthly and pale in comparison to the work done by real academics on the subject. In all the important bits (Jesus as God in flesh and his ability to both atone for my sins and offer me eternal salvation through his death on a cross) my belief is based entirely on faith but there is some reading which can satisfy the academic aspect of the argument: Is the Bible True?: How Modern Debates and Discoveries Affirm the Essence of the Scriptures by Jeffery L. Sheler (religion correspondent for U.S. News and World Report) and if you want an academically watered down but easy to read introduction to the topic: A Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel.
But what of one's daily life? How does all this post-modern musing relate to anything practical on a day to day, making-ends-meet sort of basis? To begin with, we must fully abandon all expectations and find contentment with the way things are and not the way we expect them to be. A common misconception among Christians is that God is in control of everything and that everything happens for a reason. The common adoption of this ridiculous notion has done much to deter many from the faith. It is not with the notion that God is in control that I take offense to because He in fact is, rather it is the whole assumption that all things happen for a reason as if life was a long, winding trail of causal events that ends in a specific, pre-defined goal. One of God's greatest (and most destructive) gifts given to man was that of free will and it's existence guarantees that what we reap we sow for cause and effect dictates that for every action there is a consequence. If in fact God controlled our every action we would have reason to be forever in a state of concrete expectation for in this world of inconsistency God is the one rock of certainty on which we can depend. On the other hand, our free will does not guarantee that we could ever sin outside of the bounds that God can control, God's omnipotence guarantees that nothing can be done without his allowance. It is for the sake of our autonomy that He, for the most part, keeps His divine hands out of our business unless we specifically ask him to do the opposite. It is about a free-choice to surrender the reigns of our life not the recognition of his controlling hand that would force us into reluctant surrender. The Chrisitan life is marked by the joyful release of our false sense of control and pride, yielding to the perfect love of God. Even after this act of acquiescience the wild-card actions of our imperfect selves and other free-will equipped souls will most certainly affect us for as long as we remain in this physical world we will be marred by the onus of our sins. What I am suggesting here is that we continue in this attitude of surrender and expect nothing save the promises found in scripture.
The apostle Paul, more than any other saint in scripture, had a reason to complain of the chains that bound him in prison but he only spoke of joy while writing to the early church in Phillipi: "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." (v. 1:12) Paul did not begin either his walk with Christ nor his ministry with the assumption that he would be free from pain, persecution or malady. The defining element of Paul's faith that we all admire is his ability to handle any situation thrown at him with a seemingly effortless affinity to the submission of the teachings of Jesus. All throughout the book of Acts we read tales of Paul being beaten and thrown out of every town he visited on his first missionary journey only to turn around at the end and do it all over again. You would be mistaken if you percieved Paul's attitude here to be bull-headed stubborness. Rather we should view this tenacity as characteristic of one who has abandoned all sense of worldly expectation to embrace a life in submission to the sometimes outwardly illogical but subtlely beautiful voice of God.
The way this translates into our lives today is that we should cease viewing each malady we encounter as an unexpected incident that threatens our daily routine but rather as a reminder to cast off our preconcieved notions of how we think we should live our lives in exchange for what God would have us to do. The world finds itself burdened by the self-imposed stress of depending on ourselves to succeed and the crushing sense of inadequecy when those plans do not work out as we had hoped. As Christians we should walk in the opposite direction embracing a life wholly unconcerned with whether or not things are perfect or going our way. For it is in those moments in which we are caught off guard and stretched that we are often given the most potent ministry oppourtunities and the chance to more clearly hear and discern the voice of God.
Posted by Jon at December 31, 2004 11:30 PM