The Folly of False Expectations // Following Jesus with Confidence, Part 1

<p class="p1">Following Jesus is difficult. We wish it was easy. In fact, we think it should be easy. But it’s not. It’s hard. That’s just the way it is. And that reality is something that most people struggle to come to grips with. How about you?</p> <p> </p> <h4 class="p1"><span class="s1" style="color: #ff9900;">1. The Road Less Travelled</span></h4> <p class="p2">Adversity is a fact of life. It happens in all areas of our lives, at different times. In our finances. In our relationships. In our jobs. In our families. In our health. In our own thoughts and emotions.</p> <p class="p2">Last month on the program I shared a series of messages with you called <em>How to Stop Your Family from Falling Apart.</em> And quite a number of people wrote to me and said, in effect: <em>well, my family has already fallen apart. What about me?</em> And so later this year we’ll be chatting about marriage separation and divorce, losing a loved one, singleness, childlessness … because things don’t always follow that old fairy tale ending … <em>and they lived happily ever after.</em></p> <p class="p2">My preference and your preference is that life should be easy – if not completely easy, then at least ten or 15 or twenty percent easier than it is just at the moment. Just a little bit less of a struggle. Just a little bit easier. Oh – and no major catastrophes. No major disasters that cause us pain.</p> <p class="p2">And the key here is expectation. My parent’s generation went through World War II – my dad fought in the German army on the Russian front. My mother lived through air raids and the bombing of her home town Graz in Austria. And when I look at those people from that generation – whether European or Australian or wherever they come from, their expectations of life being easy aren’t as high as perhaps yours and mine are.</p> <p class="p2">My generation – the baby boomers – we were born in the 1950's and 60’s in a golden era of prosperity and hope. Our parents, having suffered much through WWII worked hard to give us a bette