Of Expectations

First of all, I would like to thank all the readers of this blog, who have given me comments, suggestions or criticisms, whether personally, via msn or the tagboard. Believe me when I say these comments are all precious to me, and that I really enjoy the exchange of opinions and mutual sharpening of each other's minds.

At the end of the day, I can only pray that what I write and what I think can be used by God to provoke the thoughts of my readers, and that in His own way, they will be edified and ministered to.

So once again, keep the comments coming (:
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A couple of weeks back, my mum told me my uncle from Australia bought iPhones for my sister and I. Since he's coming in December, I was pretty nonchalant about it.

Last week, my uncle asked me for my address and said he was going to courier the iPhones over. I was post-call and in the middle of my slumber, and I thought he was going to take his time to mail it over. So I didn't think much about it either.

A few days ago, my mum told me that my uncle had already DHL-ed the iPhones over. And since that day, I've been asking my mum whether the DHL man came by everyday, even though I knew that yesterday was a public holiday and today was a Sunday. I am an impatient person, I know it and I know it too well. Because my expectations have been raised, I seem to can't help but think about it day and night, even though I know that eventually, it'll arrive at my doorstep.

I think one should have expectations in life, because expectations drive us toward an eventual goal to be achieved. If one does not have expectations in his work, he will have nothing to work towards. But can the same be said of people? Are we given the right to have expectations of people? If parents don't have expectations of their children, will they motivate them to improve? Similarly, I would think that one will have different and stratified expectations of acquaintances, friends, good friends, best friends, boy/girl-friends, husband/wife, etc.

Thing is, when do expectations become unrealistic? Moreover, very often, conflicts and struggles come when various expectations don't agree or are not reconciled. What if your perceived-best friend did not ask you to be her maid-of-honour on her wedding day when you were almost dead sure that you're gonna be the one? (Using this example, just because I was watching the episode where Izzie's getting married to Alex on Grey's. Yea I'm lag. -.-) I guess, then, modifying and compromising one's expectations may just be the only way. Maybe to the extent of having zero expectations? But then again, how easy is it to do that? Is it even achievable?

I wonder whether God has expectations of us. No doubt His love and grace is unconditional, but do that carry expectations? If they do, for sure, all of us fail terribly. Does it make sense to say that, I love you, I do have expectations of you, but even if you fail to meet these expectations, no matter how many times, I will continue to love you, to the very end. Is this how it works? If seeing this seems to be how it works between parents and their children, I'd think that this is how it works for God and His people. And I guess this is probably how it should work between us and the people we truly love.