Desire and Disappointment

I was recently privileged to preach in my church about the life of Joseph; a model for desire turning to disappointment and leading delight. You can watch it below - starting with the children’s moment discussing Jacob’s wrestling with God and then the sermon following a song and scripture readings.

So many of the issues we run into in life are the culmination of unmet desires - or misapplied methods of meeting those desires. From abusing substances to feel safe (which was much of my 20’s and 30’s), to turning to an affair to feel seen, or turning our heart cold to feel safe, to a myriad of other ways in which we try to meet our good, god-given desires.

One point I wanted to get across is that just because the means by which I may be seeking to fulfill a desire are unhealthy, harmful, or ‘wrong’, that doesn’t negate the desire itself. I’ve found over and over again with myself and with folks I work with, that if you dig down to the deepest root of a desire, you’ll find that it’s good and God-given. An easy book to dig into this is ‘The 7 desires of every human heart’ by Deb and Mark Laaser.

A second point is that just because you run into disappointment, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve screwed up or gone awry. Sometimes, many times, disappointment is just a part of life. But it’s in that place of disappointment that we are most likely to be transformed and made ready to receive what it is we actually deeply desire.

As a Christian, there are many caveats I’d like to make - untruths many of us were taught - but namely, that God isn’t behind your disappointment- setting you up for it; nor is God the one inflicting the harm in order to get you in line; but it’s God who shows up in the midst of all of that, ready and willing to come alongside. The means and methods of God’s showing up are varied and often surprising - coming in the form of friendships, small moments of clarity, and helpful resources we never thought to ask for.