In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. —John 16:33, NKJV
I’m sure you’ve noticed that the world is not perfect. You don’t have to live long to figure that out, but something within us as human beings still seems to want to experience perfection in our lives. We want the perfect family celebration, the perfect marriage, the perfect friends, the perfect job, the perfect neighborhood, the perfect salary, the perfect vacation and the perfect church. Or at least we want what we think would be perfect. But the truth is: perfection is a completely unrealistic expectation. It simply doesn’t exist on earth. As long as we live, we will deal with imperfection. We can be miserable about that, or we can be gracious toward ourselves, others, and our circumstances and respond with faith and flexibility.
Most of us like to think about how we want our lives to unfold and then have them go exactly according to our plans, but that rarely happens. This is not a negative statement; it’s simply a reality of life on earth. Jesus promises us in today’s verse that He has overcome everything in the world, and, through the Holy Spirit, He gives us the power to overcome too.
The enemy often uses unrealistic expectations concerning our circumstances as a tool to bring discouragement and despair into our lives. For example, he knows that if he can get us to focus on the imperfections in our spouse, our marriage will be filled with frustration and disappointment instead of peace and joy.
I urge you to expect good things to happen in your life. I certainly would not tell you to expect bad things. But I also urge you to be realistic and realize that we all have to deal with things that are unpleasant and with circumstances that are less than desirable. Our attitudes about these kinds of situations make the difference between whether we live with continual frustration and disappointment over things that aren’t perfect or whether we can accept imperfections and enjoy life in spite of them.