Dealing with Disappointment

The journey of Martha and Mary in the story of Lazarus reveals a journey I find myself relating to a lot these days. It's the journey of disappointment. Disappointment in people. Disappoitment in myself and disappointment with God. These three areas make a sort of spiritual "Berumda Triangle"--that dangerous zone where planes crash, people disappear and there are few explainations.

Spiritual disappointment leaves a residue on the heart that makes the heart sick and hope fade. It goes like this: When people let you down, you have to work through feelings and where they came from. Did I expect too much? Were my expectations unrealistic? Were my hopes for what I wanted to happen unfounded and built upon sinking sand?

Writing the Lazarus book, offered me the opportunity to write a section called, "Dealing with Dis-Illusionment." Advance readers commented to me and the publisher that this was one of the most grabbing and compelling parts of the book. With that feedback and with my own illusions, I sought to develop a practical exercise--a sort of work sheet that readers of the book could practically unpackage their feelings of being disappointed in others, themselves and God. It has been an interesting journey because as an author, you have to live with what you are writing about--or else it is more fiction than reality. Lazarus makes my attempts to deal with disappointment more real than fiction; more hard than easy; more real life than a dream.

As I submitted the workbook that will accompany The Lazarus Life to the publisher yesterday, I had great hope that the exercises I offered and wrote in the workbook would all help us realize this one basic fact: No man as friend, woman as love or church as refuge can offer the human soul what Jesus Christ offers. Only Jesus! Only Jesus. Only My friend, Jesus.