ON EXPECTANCY
ex·pec·tan·cy (noun): the act, action, or state of expecting.
Recently, I’ve been revisiting the power that living with a sense of expectancy has in our lives. Big things have been brewing at my church. We recently purchased our first building and will be receiving the keys today. Excitement is building. There is a sense of wonder in the air about what it will be like to have a place to call home. Moving towards this next stage of life for our church got me thinking about the role of anticipation and expectancy in our lives.
I’m glad that I can sometimes go back to lessons I’ve learned in the past to help me navigate the next steps on my journey. I hope some of what I have gleaned can be helpful to you as well.
According to the definition above expectancy is an act, it’s something you do. And what is expectancy the act of? Expecting. Expecting is looking forward to, or waiting for something. Whatever it is that we expect is the object of out hope, right? But what do we do in those in-between times of waiting for the objects of our hope to arrive?
Over the years, God has helped to give me direction in this department. Several big ideas/life lessons came to mind when I was thinking about this topic of expectancy. God said something good is coming. (Jeremiah 29:11) And also that waiting for the good stuff isn’t always easy but it’s worth it. (Matthew 13:44) And we all long for something better than what we see in the world around us, right? (Romans 8:19-21) So what do we do while we wait? We can seek opportunities to grow while we wait for the goodness God has promised. (Romans 8:22-25)
What I think is really awesome about this last big idea is that when we look for opportunities to grow while we wait for the coming goodness, we begin to experience God’s goodness right now! When we put our energy in living in the present with the future in mind it’s like investing. And what happens in investing? We take what we’ve got, put it to work, and in the future we end up with more than we started with. Hope and a future.
There is a line in C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian, one of the Chronicles of Narnia books, that I just love because it captures this idea really well. Lucy runs into Aslan and it’s been a while since they have been together. Lucy asks Aslan if he has gotten bigger and I just love Aslan’s reply. “I have not grown” says Aslan. “Every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” We have the opportunity to grow while we wait.
So what opportunities are right in front of you that you might miss if you don’t choose to live with an expectant heart?
The Green Couch 
Nice Jason! That is a wonderful quote!