How Dealing With Disappointment Can Unleash Your Breakthrough
It’s a bitter winter evening, snow falling like a white veil, when I realize that I need to let myself feel the disappointment I’ve been running from. Not long ago, a dream fell apart, and I decided it would be best to pretend I never cared about the dream. Ignoring the pain seemed easier than dealing with disappointment directly.
The pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstrappers know all about this kind of false resilience. We say we’re rolling with the punches and bouncing back, but what we’re really doing is running from our disappointment.
I’ve run from all kinds of disappointments.
I pretended it didn’t matter when the dream died, the job didn’t work out, and the step of faith was met with a closed door.
As I walk beneath the falling ivory, I decide it’s time to let myself feel this most recent disappointment. I face the feelings, and I confess my disappointment that God’s plans aren’t matching mine.
Dealing With Disappointment
I think of the disciple Peter as I walk.
After denying Jesus three times, Peter weeps bitter tears.
We don’t know if he ran from the pain that went with his betrayal, but I’m guessing that his heart ached as he looked back with regret. most likely, his grief was threaded with distress over everything that went wrong at the very end.
Shortly after Peter’s betrayal, we catch up with him as he sits with Jesus over a breakfast of fish beside a smoldering fire.
Three times, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Peter affirms his love. Jesus restores him and commissions him to lead others in the faith.
It seems Jesus knew something Peter did not know. Jesus knew that Peter’s denials would bring to light a part of Peter’s heart that needed to change before he could lead others.
In the same way, Jesus knows the parts of our hearts that need to come into the light so that he can remove our stumbling blocks.
God’s Help in Dealing With Disappointment
As I consider my pain on the snowy road, I consider God’s hand in dealing with disappointment in my life.
While I mostly want to run from this discomfort, God is using my pain to show me what he wants to bring to light so that he can remove it.
On this winter day, he shows me that he wants to use this pain to teach me to release my sense of control over my future and trust him to carve the path before me. He shows me that my life is not too much for him to handle and that his hand has been upon me all the while.
God might want to speak truth into your painful seasons as well.
He is calling you to face your pain instead of running from it. Running from your pain might even be the very behavior that is blocking you from your breakthrough.
Let’s look at four ways God leads us to deal with our disappointment so that we might step into a breakthrough:
1. Dealing with disappointment leads us to examine where we find our hope.
When we live with hope based on pleasant circumstances, our hope is bound to falter through life’s difficult seasons.
Pain reminds us to put our hope in the anchor of Immanuel, God with us.
He is with us through even the most painful seasons of suffering and pain. When we learn to put our hope in God’s presence with us, even the most painful situations don’t break us. Our hope is in God, not in pleasant circumstances.
2. Dealing with disappointment leads us to the unchanging part of our identities.
Most of us get caught up in finding our identities in our titles and giftings. We call ourselves wives, mothers, friends, and daughters, and we define ourselves by our careers and interests. These parts of us are true, but they are each subject to change.
The only part of your identity that can never be stripped away is this: You are God’s beloved child.
God will always love you. Nothing can take his love away from you (see Romans 8:37-39).
God wants to use your difficult situation to help you stand on your identity as his beloved child.
3. Dealing with disappointment reminds us to consider our priorities.
We are meant to live our lives loving God and loving others (Mark 12:30-31).
Our disappointments often tear down idols like success, perfectionism, and every false god that leads us away from God’s two greatest commands.
God uses our disappointments to remind us of what matters most in our lives.
4. Our disappointments teach us about dependence.
When life is rolling along smoothly, we begin to believe we can make it on our own.
We’re prone to turn away from God and turn toward independence. Painful seasons remind us of our desperation to lean on the One who guides our paths and carries us through the rivers and the fires of life.
Painful seasons remind us of our desperation to lean on the One who guides our paths and carries us through the rivers and the fires of life. #Godusespain #dealingwithdisappointment Click To Tweet~~~
I walk through the falling snow until darkness comes. When I return to the house, I wish I could say my heart feels lighter.
It doesn’t.
Dealing with disappointment hurts. It’s harder than pushing the pain aside and barreling forward with both eyes on the horizon. It’s also worth every painful step of the journey. I’m determined to keep going. There’s a breakthrough waiting on the other side of winter’s white veil.
A Free Devotional to Help You Deal With Disappointments
Lastly, I have a gift for you today. Hope for Hard Days is my free 10-day online devotional to help you hold onto hope when life is tough. You will find 10 readings to help you connect with God and claim his peace. Click here and I’ll send it to your email inbox today for free with promo code HOPE.
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