When Did We Stop Expecting?

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:11] Friends. Welcome back to another edition of the weekday podcast. As we enter into this season, we want to get ready for Christmas. So today's episode is this one little question. When did we stop expecting? In Isaiah 9:2, the prophet says, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. I think there's a moment in most people's lives and we don't even realize it when it's happening. But something happens. One day we're wide eyed, one day we're expectant, one day we're believing God might do something amazing. And then somewhere along the way that shifts. We start going through the motions where we pray, but we're not really expecting an answer. We show up, but truthfully, we're not really engaged. Now, usually this shift is not dramatic. It's actually subtle. It's more like a slow fade. And before you know it, you've stopped expecting God to show up at all. [00:01:01] Now here's how you know this has happened to you. This is when you read the Bible, but you're not really looking for God. You're just checking a box or someone asked, what's God doing in your life? And you have to think about it a really long time to come up with an answer. You used to believe that God might surprise you, but now you're just trying to make it through the week. If any of those things resonate with you, you're not alone. A lot of us are there even now. And here's what concerns me. When you stop expecting God to move, you stop looking for him to move. And when you stop looking, you start settling. And the settling becomes accepting. And accepting well, it becomes permanent. And one day you wake up and realize you don't really believe in much of anything anymore. And that's the danger of what I call spiritual flatness. It doesn't announce itself, it just quietly takes over. It's like a gym membership that you sign up for in January. The first week you're there every day, you're motivated, you're taking those progress photos. But by February you haven't been there in three weeks. And by March you're avoiding that side of town so you don't have to drive past it. But you keep paying. Because canceling feels like admitting defeat. And that's what happens to us spiritually. We keep the membership, we keep the label, but we're not showing up anymore. So that's why we're going to spend these next few episodes just talking about this in the next few weeks thinking about wonder. Because somewhere along the way, most of us outgrow that wide eyed wonder. We once had Christmas lights. They used to stop us in the tracks. The story of Jesus used to fill us with awe. But now, if we're not careful, it just becomes information. [00:02:30] So this December, I want to help you rediscover that childlike wonder. The kind that reminds you that God is still doing something miraculous. So we're going to walk through the different themes of hope, peace, joy and love. And we're going to see what happens when we actually receive what God is offering. When Isaiah writes this in verse two, he says the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Not they might see, not they will see someday. They will see present reality. The light is breaking through right now. [00:03:01] So that's the invitation for you today. Start expecting again. Start looking up to believe that the same God who split the sky with angels and filled a manger with glory still meets us in our everyday moments. [00:03:13] Hope isn't coming. Hope is here. So here's my question. When did you stop expecting? And more importantly, are you ready to start again? You don't lose your wonder all at once. You lose it one lowered expectation at a time. Today, let's look up. Have a great day. We'll see you back here soon. [00:03:39] Sa.