Great Expectations
Feeling a little down about life? Feeling a lack of significance or purpose? Why is it, that in an age and country where wealth and opportunity abound, we feel so empty? The world is your oyster! The possibilities are endless!! Why does this make me so depressed?
Maybe my expectations are simply too high. If anything is possible, then surely, I should do great things. I feel I need to change the world, achieve something great and outstanding. But the fact is that not everyone can be outstanding. For there to be a tall poppy, there have to be lots of short poppies to compare it to.
I was watching Pride & Prejudice the other day, and it made me think about contentment. They had so much less than me, and especially the women, had so drastically fewer opportunities. Yet I don't know if they were really any less happy. Look at the chic who married Mr Collins - an odd man who she didn't love. But as a plain, poor woman, she had few choices in life. She picked one that looked satisfactory, and simply made the most of it. She encouraged her husband to spend a lot of time in the garden 'for the sake of his health', and got on with keeping her house as best and beautiful as she could. And she was happy. She fully accepted her lot in life.
It seems that the more opportunity we have, the less we are satisfied with what we have. I have so many choices that I can't make a decision. We are always looking around to see what others have, or how we could do better. Why so many career changes? (Heather!!!) Because maybe that job is just a little better. Why so many divorces? Because maybe I could be happier with someone else. Why so much discontentment? Because maybe I could be doing something greater.
Are we just expecting too much out of life, to the detriment of our own contentment?
posted by Vi @ 1/31/2006 10:45:00 am
4 comments
4 Comments:
Yea, good thoughts. I think though that we should have big and great expectations in life however, as you suggest, those great expectations and where and how we expect them to be fulfilled in life has become a bit skewed. Our measuring system for greatness and success/fulfillment has been warped.
yeah i think we need our dreams of doing something great, but the roads we take to get there probably won't be the ones we expect, and can take us to places we didn't really want to go, but we have to be patient and do what we can for God where ever we may be. surrendering all things to him. and trusting in him. and remebering that doing something great in life may mean that few know who you are or what you did. i think a good question to ask ourselves sometimes is " who's life did you help to better today?"
hope you can find significance in the things you do Heavi :)
Your questioning gives me these thoughts: Great things don't have to be big things. It amazes me how ordinary, insignificant things/act/words etc can have such a huge impact...for good or bad. I very much agree with Dave that our determining of greatness has been warped. Think of all the great things Jesus did. He lived a life of greatness yet so much of what He did would have been looked over by the average person, frowned on by the religious. Perhaps to live a life of greatness we need to do the little great things today, and tomorrow and then the next day. And expectations are just that--expectations. The anticipation of things to come, not the rejoicing over the things that are.
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