by A. A. Neale

People will eventually disappoint me, but not God. He may not do everything I want or expect him to do, but he never breaks his word nor acts against his character. I may not always understand his ways or purposes, and I may question where the path leads or the whys of my life, but God will be the constant to keep me going.

The pain of intimacy is seeing, in another and in myself, the inconsistencies, the expectations, the absurd demands that sour the joy of relationships. Yes, we may, and should, leave these aside and concentrate on the good, but there will always be an effort, a limp, a wince, in the best of human relations.

Not so with God. I may wince at my own expectations of him, but never at him. I may cringe at my own inconsistencies, but never at his. I may make absurd demands of my own spirituality, but never of him.

Abraham may have had reason to wonder, to question, to feel disappointment when the Lord told him to take his son of the promise and offer him as a sacrifice. But the holy text only says that the patriarch got up early in the morning and obeyed.

The psychologists and psychiatrists have gotten us so psyched out that we have to take our emotional pulse every 30 seconds. We have yet to approach the sufferings of Job, but we are more than ready to take up his mantle of wondering and questioning what God is doing. Unlike that wise old man, we sometimes permit the mental and emotional acrobatics to swing us into the cold regions of disbelief.

God will never disappoint, as long as I let God be God. He is true to himself, true to his word, true to his people. If I give him room to work, time to conclude, he will always come through.

That last paragraph borders on blasphemy. Who am I to "let" God be God? Who am I to "give" anything to God?

It is I who needs to be proven, not God. If I submit (ah! there's a better word!) to the Almighty, he will prove me. And never disappoint. And I'm thankful for that.

"To You they cried out and were delivered; In You they trusted and were not disappointed" (Psalm 22:5, NASB).

"For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed'" (Romans 10:11).