“Maybe you expected
something more from this
whole following-Jesus thing.
But it hasn’t delivered.”
it feels as if we’re taking a slap at
God—and it doesn’t make us look all
that great either. Yet it affects us pain-
fully on the in-side every single day.
Here it is: Believing in Jesus has left
us disappointed.
Maybe for you it’s more than dis-
appointed—you feel disillusioned,
maybe even cheated. You expected
something more from this whole fol-
lowing-Jesus thing. But it hasn’t deliv-
ered.
At one point in your life, you were
thrilled and hopeful about living a life
of trusting in Jesus. But over time your
experience has failed to live up to
your expectations. Somewhere along
the line, your relationship with Jesus
lost its richness and intimacy.
Maybe you’re discouraged be-
cause you feel helpless to make some
needed changes in your life. Maybe
your troubles feel unbearably hard—
where is Jesus in all that? Maybe you
haven’t achieved the great things for
God you once dreamed of. Instead,
you’re left feeling aimless and con-
fused. You’ve waited—and waited—
for your faith to make more of a dif-
ference. But it hasn’t. And so you’ve
begun to think, This can’t be all there
is to the Christian life.
If that’s what you’re thinking, here’s
the good news: You’re right.
Jesus held out the promise of “a
rich and satisfying life.”1 But for many
of us, the truth is that rich and satisfy-
ing are the last words we would use
to describe our current reality. I’ve felt
this way in multiple seasons of my life.
And as a pastor, I’ve heard countless
people express the same disappoint-
ment to me in different ways.
It’s for Them
Have you ever seen other Christians
step boldly into risk-taking adventures
and wondered, How do they do that?
You hear stories of courage in the
face of insurmountable obstacles. You
see how these Christians respond with
compassion and love, even when
they are threatened or their patience
is tested. In everything they do, they
seem to ooze Jesus. Before long, you
become acutely aware of the enor-
mous gap between their intimacy
with God and your own.
They must have something I don’t
have, you tell yourself. They must know
something I don’t know. Before long,
disappointment sets in, and you start
to believe that a life of deep and
Solutions 5 1