We’ve all experienced disappointment in our lives at one time or another.  Perhaps it was due to circumstances, or an individual, or even disappointment in yourself.  Disappointment can easily lead you down the path of bitterness, cynicism, or self-pity.  But these things are like poison to your soul.  So what’s the healthy answer for how to deal with disappointment?  Martin Luther King, Jr. experienced deep disappointments at times along his journey for a better future.  King says the only healthy response to disappointment is to hope.  That’s right– hope.  Dr. King writes, “The only healthy answer lies in one’s honest recognition of disappointment even as he still clings to hope, one’s acceptance of finite disappointment even while clinging to infinite hope.”*  King isn’t talking about an unrealistic hope that circumstances or people will change, but rather a hope in God and God’s ultimate will.  King is talking about faith and hope in God’s reign of justice, love and peace one day being realized.

King writes, “We must not permit adverse winds to overwhelm us as we journey across life’s mighty Atlantic; we must be sustained by our engines of courage in spite of the winds.”**  We must remember God is with us always, even in the storms of life, and let that knowledge give us peace and courage.  We must trust that God is able, God is good, and that God works for our good in all things.  This is where we find our hope.  We hope because, although, Jesus was crucified and died, death did not have the final word.  Life did.  Jesus was raised from the dead and lives.  When we are disappointed and it seems there is no way forward, we can remember that from death comes new life and from endings come new beginnings; we can choose to trust God and to hope for a better tomorrow.   Read Romans 5:1-5, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally!

Annie

Today’s Reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A1-5&version=NRSV

* King, Jr., Martin Luther. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by James M. Washington (San Francisco: Harper, 1986), 584.

** Ibid., 584.