The Hope of Disappointment
Greetings, 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 seek to understand the meaning of the hope of disappointment.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Hope of Disappointment
"For we are saved by hope: But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for?" Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 24.
Once there was a man who felt that his bed was too hard. Now he had been sleeping in this bed all
this time without any problem, but now felt that he needed a softer bed. So he said to himself, I will
go down to the local furniture store, and buy a new and better bed, one that is much softer than my
old bed.
After having arrived at the furniture store, he checked all the beds until he found the one that suited
him. It felt much softer than his old bed so he took it home. But when he tried sleeping in this new
bed, he discovered that it was ten times harder than his old bed. After a restless night of sleep, he
returned the bed and looked for another. He inspected the second bed very carefully, even taking a
thirty minute nap on it. When he was satisfied he took the bed home, but when he tried sleeping on
this bed, he found it was all but impossible since it was a hundred times harder than his original bed.
He was very disappointed and more than a little outraged. Something was wrong here.
When he talked this problem over with his friends, the best advice they could offer him was this:
Buy another one. So he went back to the furniture store, this time with his friends. They carefully
inspected the beds and selected a third bed. Just to be sure, he spent the night in the store sleeping
on the new bed. Awakening the next morning, he declared that the bed had passed the test. That
night at home, he slept in this bed and found that it was a thousand times harder than the last bed that
he had slept in.
Brother and sisters, truth is infinite, eternal, and unchanging, but ever alive and vibrant. From our
viewpoint, a finite and temporal viewpoint, it is a matter of growing in the knowledge of the truth,
a matter of comprehending more and more. In the situations of life we experience happiness and we
are made glad; we also experience sadness, and we are made sad. The experiences of life have many
ups and downs. Often times, things are seldom as they appear to be. In our attempts to understand
these experiences, we assign causes to them. But as time passes, deeper causes appear. Sometimes
in our experiences, things have a certain meaning, but as time progresses these experiences take on
other, deeper meanings.
Sometimes an experience makes us happy, but as time passes, the consequences of this same
experience make us sad. On the other hand, many times we experience a sad experience, but as time
passes, the consequence of this experience brings us happiness. Thus, sadness is gladness, and
gladness is sadness. Fleeing from a disagreeable experience often brings immediate relief, but as
time passes, it unfailingly brings a harvest of increased hardships.
But all these experiences are accompanied by hope. We hope that happiness will last, and we hope
that sadness will end. We hope to make a new start, and we hope the grass will be greener on the
other side of the fence. But hope is an eternal quality. Hope that is applied to temporal and material
things can only bring disappointments and sorrow sooner or later. To pursue hope is to pursue life,
eternal life. Every disappointment purifies our hope until it is free of all material and temporal
blemishes. The rungs of the ladder of eternal and spiritual success are composed of wisdom.
Every disappointment brings about a course adjustment in the struggling journey of life. The fruits
of disappointment are wisdom. Faith is essential to the sailboat of hope. Faith is the sail, and hope
is the boat. They both are essential to cross the sea of time and space and to arrive safely on the
shores of the timeless, spaceless, and eternal promised land.
This concludes today's message on the hope of 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.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
The Hope of Disappointment
