Risk and Disappointment

What is risk? Risk is stepping outside the bounds of the comfortable into the depths of the unknown. People risk for many reasons, but the primary reason is Hope. Hope for change. Hope for love. Hope for impact. Hope for greatness. Hope to be called beautiful. Hope to make a difference. Hope to be heard and noticed. There are many reasons for hope.

But hope takes root in a heart that is free and open to love, risk, dream, and soar.

Free hearts take risks. And it is how we handle the resulting success or disappointment that will determine the freedom of our hearts to dream and risk again.

Unfortunately, many free hearts are young hearts, because they have not yet faced the devastating disappointment that many of the old hearts have experienced.

Sometimes, we look at a person’s life and say, “They were so on fire when they were young. What happened that made them draw back to a mild, risk-free life? Why did they stop dreaming?”

It is easy for us to look on with an accusing glance, but what we do not see is the times when that soaring heart came crashing down in disappointment and confusion over circumstances in life.

What led to this disappointment? There are many things that can happen, but typically it begins with one particular element—FALSE EXPECTATIONS.

False expectations lead to false hope which ends in disappointment. False expectations are a tricky thing because most of the time, we cannot even identify our own expectations, much less the expectations of someone else. And when our expectations clash with the expectations of someone we love, disappointment and heartbreak ensue.

This is the reason for so many broken relationships, church splits, divorces, and hearts that cease to dream.

We must learn to identify our expectations and bring them into line with reality before that soaring heart comes crashing into the unforeseen wall of disappointment. However, we must not let the fear of disappointment or failure keep us from taking risks.

Free hearts take risks. We must learn how to walk through times of disappointment with an open heart before the Lord so that we can be free to dream and risk again. Let us never stop dreaming and never drawback, so that even when our young hearts become old, they never lose the fire of hope and the freedom to risk.