Supreme Disappointment
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
Greeting, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to
explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly
Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This
morning we will ponder the meaning of supreme disappointment.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Supreme Disappointment
Jesus said, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life
shall preserve it." Luke, Chapter 17, Verse 33.
Brothers and sisters, material life is a series of disappointments with momentary successes
interspersed. And this is true, even though we have been taught the opposite--that life is a series of
successes with momentary disappointments interspersed. And this is true regardless of what the short
run reveals. Only spiritual life is disappointment-free. Only the Father's love is free of
disappointment. There are basically two kinds of materials disappointments that we can experience.
First, there are the disappointments of errors, and then there are the disappointments of circumstances.
The disappointments of circumstances are inherent in the imperfect conditions that make up our
environment. These are the accidents of time and the circumstances of imperfections of existence.
These include all natural disasters, the impersonal consequences of personal acts, and the personal
consequences of impersonal acts, as well as the imperfections of human life. The disappointments
resulting from material circumstances of life must be accepted. Trying to assign or accept blame for
these disappointments is error.
The disappointments of errors are the results of immature and unwise judgements. The
disappointments of errors also include those disappointments proceeding from poor insight. Thus
a person may select an inappropriate goal or even an appropriate goal, but because of poor timing
and circumstances, the goal may fail to materialize. Also a person my suffer disappointment because
of a personal loss, but the passing of time may make him glad that he sustained such a loss, or his
sense of disappointment may increase as time passes.
Unrecognized error tends to create greater error, and ultimately an even greater disappointment. This
occurs because the decisions that are made are based upon error rather than truth. Only truth can lead
to happiness. But this same unrecognized error contains within it the power to make itself
recognized. This is true because the consequences of error cause pain, and pain unfailingly causes
a person to change his course of action. And recognized error provide for those course adjustments
in decision making that lead to the acquirement of true meanings and real values.
But failure to repent of recognized error is sin, since the individual is conscious of, and willfully
committed to, wrongdoing. Persistence in doing things the wrong way gradually leads to the loss of
the ability to discern, and choose right over wrong--in other words to spiritual death. Such a wicked
one has voluntarily destroyed his spiritual birth right---the capacity to know God, and become like
Him, and to crave survival. The only reason that we can distinguish right from wrong is because of
our moral and spiritual nature that allows us to distinguish them and choose accordingly.
Failure to repent recognized errors is like building a house on a foundation of quicksand. Refusal to
repent destroys unity in the mind. Failure to repent creates a fragmented and compartmentalized life.
All the factors of life are disjointed, and each part is out of harmony with all of the other parts. It
blinds the individual to the wholeness of life, and causes the individual to make decisions in a void,
causing segregation of experiences. Such individuals make statements such as: I made this decision
because it was best for me, rather then I made this decision because it was the best decision for all
involved. Can your imagine a mother making a decision that may be in her best interest but not in
the best interest of her helpless child? We read about such decisions almost daily.
Failure to repent of recognized error, which is the conscious pursuit of selfishness, creates
unreliability and untrustworthiness. It causes failure to penetrate beyond the superficial appearances
of promises, to the heart of the true implications and real ramification such promises contain. It
causes a constant changing of position and an endless stream of excuses. Sometimes in utter
disregard of truth, no excuse is forthcoming at all. But this is a very bad predicament to be in. The
fragmentation and compartmentalization of life is the prelude to all uneasiness of mind, while the
persistent pursuit of disunity is insanity and it unfailingly disintegrates the mind.
Only truth unifies. The march of truth is bound to bring disappointment after disappointment into
our temporal and material lives, even as it brings success after success into our spiritual and eternal
lives. A successful life is one that emerges from the ashes of any and all disappointments even more
determined to do the Father's will, while an unsuccessful life never emerges from the ashes of
disappointment, and is in fact buried by them. And sad to say, the desire to do the Father's will
decreases in such an unfortunate one.
Truth is the great purifier, destroying all erroneous concepts and all erroneous thinking in the mind.
But fear is the great enslaver. Fear prevents us from embarking on the search for truth and from
embracing truth, even after we are convicted in our hearts of it. It requires courage to break with the
errors of the past, to boldly go where no one has gone before, except Jesus.
And just as fear is the great enslaver, so is love the great liberator. Divine love destroys all fear and
creates a love for truth. It is impossible for recognized error to persist in the face of divine love.
Divine love causes us to repent of all known sin, regardless of the consequences. Divine love causes
us to pursue truth, regardless of the consequences. Divine love imparts a consciousness of spiritual
invincibility and indestructibility. This consciousness knows just as the consciousness of the evildoer
knows that anything can and will happen in the temporal and material life, but unlike the evildoer,
it knows that its soul is indestructible. So while the evildoer's mind is filled with crippling fear and
a nameless despair, the mind of the truth lover is filled with liberating love and an indescribable
hope.
Such a one is equipped to stand calmly by while truth destroys all the material and temporal error
associated with such a life. It resists any and all temptations to tamper with the mandates of truths.
It quietly suffers the mental anguish of the human state when it encounters losses. It remain
courageous in the face of the loss of treasured things, meanings, and values. Each loss in life is met
with the quiet but certain assurance that nothing of true spiritual value is ever lost. And when he is
finally brought face to face with supreme disappointment--the loss of his own material life--still in
the pursuit of truth, he meets it with peace and calmness and goes on to receive the supreme blessing,
the gift of eternal life.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of supreme disappointment. We hope
you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day. Until next
time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Supreme Disappointment
