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Disappointments come in all shapes and sizes.  Some are small, like the grocery store no longer stocking your favourite cereal, or a rented movie having a glitched disk.  On the opposite spectrum, disappointments are felt in being let down by a friend, a miscarried pregnancy, or not being accepted into the internship upon which you’d set your hopes.  While my life does not contain any of these disappointments at the moment, it has recently held another. 

Disappoint.  Dis-appoint.  I make no claims of erudite linguistic skills, but from what I've gleamed from online dictionaries, the Latin prefix “dis” means “apart”, or having a “reversing force.”  Appoint, also of Latin origin, comes from the words “ad” and “point.”  When translated: “to point.”  That is, to direct.  So when we dust down to the details, to be “disappointed” means to be moving away from direction.  Which makes sense, because a disappointment often requires a reevaluation, a changed plan, or other sort of re-orientation. 

So, as my thought train chugs down its tracks, I encounter this: if our lives are ordered by an underlying focus and direction towards Christ, than we should not allow circumstantial disappointments to disrupt us on the large scale.  Easy enough when it’s your cereal that’s out of stock; harder when it’s your health or relationships that are affected.  But if, in every disappointment we asked ourselves “what is my direction?”  “Has the true meaning of my life been proven untrustworthy?”  If our life’s meaning is based upon work, people, or health, then it is almost inevitable that it will fail eventually.  However, if we bank our lives on something more stable and unchanging, a Rock perhaps, then no matter how the winds blow, we will not be moved. 

“Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

 For You have been a shelter for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.
I will abide in Your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.” 

~Psalm 61:1-4

JJ Heller, a Christian song artist, is a favourite of mine for the depth of emotion and faith portrayed through her music.  She recently released a song titled “Who You Are.”  It’s beautiful with a impacting meaning, and sticks with me. 

Anjeli Carol