Expectation

Joel Osteen relates how he heard a story some years ago, about a famous golfer who was invited by the King of Saudi Arabia to play golf in a tournament. He accepted the invitation and the King flew his private jet over to pick up the pro. They played golf for several days, and enjoyed a good time. As the golfer was getting on the plane to return home, the King stopped him and said, ‘I want to give you a gift for coming all this way and making this time special. Anything you want. What could I give you?’

Ever the gentleman, the golfer replied, ‘Oh, please don’t give me anything. You’ve been a gracious host. I’ve had a wonderful time. I couldn’t ask for anything more.’

The King was adamant. He said, ‘No, I insist on giving you something so you will always remember your journey to our country.’

When the golfer realised that the King was resolute, he said, ‘Okay, fine. I collect golf clubs. Why don’t you give me a golf club?’

He boarded the plane, and on his flight home he couldn’t help wondering what kind of a golf club the King might give him. He imagined that it might be a solid gold putter with his name engraved on it. Or maybe it would be a sand wedge studded with diamonds and jewels. After all, this would be a gift from the oil-rich king of Saudi Arabia.

When the golfer got home he watched the post and the delivery services every day, to see if his golf club had come yet. Finally, several weeks later, he received a certified letter from the King of Saudi Arabia. The professional thought that rather strange. Where’s my gold club? he wondered. He opened the envelope, and to his surprise, inside he discovered the deeds to a five-hundred-acre golf course [golf club] in America.

Sometimes kings think differently from you and me. And friend, we serve the King of Kings. We serve the Most High God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (cf. Ephesians 3:20).

Source: Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now, 2008, London: Hodder & Stoughton, p.15-16

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left.

Isaiah 54:2-3 NIV

A pessimist expects the worse to happen and an optimist expects the best, but expectations are never fussy about whose table they sit at, and they’ve never been known to decline an invitation!

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”

Benjamin Franklin

“Optimists are always right in the end, but so are pessimists. The choice is yours.”

Harvey Mackay, US businessman and author

‘My Wage’

I bargained with life for a penny,
And life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.

For life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, then you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of life,
Life would have willingly paid.

by Jessie B. Rittenhouse

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

Hebrews 10:35-36 NIV

You can’t have it all; else where would you put everything?

“Become a possibilitarian.”

Norman Vincent Peale

“It’s a funny thing, life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you often get it.”

W. Somerset Maugham

You know how sometimes people are sent on a training course at work and they really, really don’t want to go! Well, at the beginning of one inaugural session the opening speaker – expecting a positive response – addressed the delegates by saying: Let me ask this, why are you all here? And a wit in the audience piped up, “Because we are not all there!”