Disappointment is Temporary
We need to learn to deal with disappointments. I think the best way to do this is to remember that our disappointments are temporary.
Perhaps when the Psalmist said "Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5) he was talking about eternity. Maybe he was saying, disappointments will always be part of life, until we open our eyes on the other side of death.
Because friends, the Christian not only has great hope for this life, and for the redemption of our disappointments as we live our lives - but ultimately, we have the greater hope of life after death where disappointments are all done away with.
Disappointment as a Hunger for Home
Philip Yancey says this in his book Disappointment With God: "The Bible never belittles disappointment, but it does add one key word: temporary. What we feel now, we will not always feel. Our disappointment is itself a sign, an aching, a hunger for something better. And faith is, in the end, a kind of homesickness - for a home we have never visited but have never once stopped longing for."
Our longing for a life free of disappointment and pain is a longing for our real home, with Jesus in heaven.
Listen to Paul - the same Paul who had that thorn in his flesh which God didn't remove! Earlier in 2 Corinthians "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
Whatever disappointments and troubles you face here, they are light and momentary compared to the glory awaiting us in the next life. Meantime, Paul says, we fix our eyes on eternal things, not temporary things.
Are you fixing your eyes on your disappointments? Obsessing over them? Holding onto them? Maybe it's time to lay them down, and fix your eyes on Jesus – the eternal Son of God – instead.
Followers of Jesus don't let their disappointments weigh them down, because they have this great hope in a day when disappointment will be no more.
Releasing Your Wounds to God
I'm not suggesting that you just make up your mind to stop feeling pain because of your belief in heaven. Pain and disappointment take time to heal.
But if we keep focusing on our wounds and keep picking at them, they will not heal! If we release them to God and keep our eyes on Him, we will begin to heal.
Paul is saying here that ultimately we have this hope - that our longing for a life free of disappointment will be fulfilled when we are with Him in glory. Jesus' great message for people who believed in Him was that death no longer defeats us. In fact, for the child of God, it brings us new life!
The book of Revelation, which contains John's glorious vision of the new creation, says this: "'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4)
Our disappointments are temporary, friends. Look at them through the eyes of eternity, and believe that they are light and momentary compared to the glorious hope that awaits us.
Every disappointment this side of eternity is temporary - and fixing your eyes on the eternal glory ahead is the key to walking through the pain. Lift your eyes above your circumstances today and place your hope in Him.