I believe that what we do after things do not go our way says a great deal about who we are. Character is essentially a product of our choices to the circumstances we face in life. Many would reduce character to a product of our circumstances in life, but I am not willing to do so. Because to say that is to say that we have no choice, that we are passive victims of the events of our lives, and am not willing to think that way let alone live that way.

I cannot subscribe to a theology of a God who puts hard things in our path. My understanding of God doesn’t line up with a God who tempts us, tries us, and trips us up just to build character in us. I believe that circumstances come our way and we become the agents, the actors, the do-ers in how we choose to respond.

And so when dis-appointments come our way it is an opportunity to look to God. Not to plead “why have you put this seemingly insurmountable obstacle in my path?” but to plead from our knees through blurry tear-filled eyes “God help me find a way around and through.”

Dis-appointments in my life have often proven to be catalysts for significant growth; a time to get up dust off my pride and look for the next place to step, for the next risk to take. I have learned much through dis-appointment about the value of grief and letting community care for me. Trough dis-appointment I have had to resist becoming bitter and angry, but to look for vibrancy and colour in the beauty of the world around me. Rather than being destroyed I have had to choose to create.

And as Frederick Buechner once wrote

“ Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next.”

God today please re-appoint that which has dis-appointed and may I ultimately see your Divine-appointment.

Amen