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Ronnie Brown and Expectations  “Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6 This week I was reminded of one of life’s cold hard truths, often what we expect to happen never comes to fruition. For me this reminder came in the form of Miami Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown’s trip to the injured reserve. For most of the year I have looked like a genius (ok maybe not a genius, but really smart) because Ronnie Brown has been a top 10 fantasy football running back and I drafted him in the fourth round. So while other guy’s running backs were struggling, Ronnie Brown just kept chugging right along, getting me lots of points every week. As recently as last week I was content to just sit back and watch Ronnie run, run, run. This last week, however, Ronnie hurt his ankle and now he will be out the rest of the year. My high expectations for him are but a thing of the past and now my fantasy football world is in turmoil because something that I was counting on happening fell through. There are a lot of times that life, particularly the spiritual life, is a lot like depending on Ronnie Brown. We make plans, we hope, we pray, and then from out of nowhere something comes that completely derails what we thought was going to happen. Jesus’ disciples even experienced this while He was on earth. After all that they had seen in his ministry, death, and resurrection Acts 1:6 still finds them asking the Savior, “Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Despite everything that He had done they were still hung up on something that had been their expectation all along, but what God was doing was so much bigger than their expectations. They were looking for someone to defeat the Romans, but Jesus instead emerged victorious over sin, death, and hell. Yesterday I cut Ronnie Brown. Despite my lofty expectations for him he is no longer of use to my fantasy football team. In order for me to win my league I cannot afford to have dead weight on my roster. I am now free to go in a completely different direction. Maybe some of us should cut some of our expectations in other areas of life and let God take things in a completely different direction than we ever anticipated. Staff Writer: Aaron Sharp |
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