Hello, my name is Blake Shipp. My wife, Rachel, and I have been married for twelve years and we have two terrific children, Addison and Hayden. My wife and I are originally from Austin, Texas. I have been serving as the Equipping Pastor here at Browncroft for two years. 

Reflection

Disappointment. Not really a word that feels right as the first word of a new year. Yet, disappointment is the stuff that makes up much of life. Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way we would like it to or even expect it to. We are disappointed. As I read the opening lines of Judges, the last thing I expect is disappointment. The people are poised to take the land which God has promised them. The tribe of Judah goes forth (Judges 1.1-3). I try to imagine what it must have been like to be one of the men of the tribe of Judah as they marched forth to take the land that God had promised. At first, everything goes as it should, or at least as expected. They took the land. They took it because God gave it to them, because God was with them (Judges 1.4, 19). It all looked great. Then the wheels came off.  

 

Suddenly and without warning it got pretty hard to take the land. The people of Judah and the rest of the tribes of Israel found that they couldn’t drive the Canaanites out. It had to be, well, disappointing. This was not the way it was supposed to be. I can imagine the discussions around the dinner table. “Didn’t God tell us to take this land? What gives here?” Sounds a lot like conversations I have had or heard on the lips of others. “I thought this was the way God wanted me to go. What gives here?” We hit disappointment, the point where our reality doesn’t meet our expectations. As I consider the text, I realize that the Israelite’s expectations didn’t meet their reality for two reasons, one positive and one negative. Let’s hit the negative one first. One reason the Israelites couldn’t take the land was due to their own impartial obedience. They were serving God, seeking to accomplish His will on their own terms (Judges 2.1-5). I get that about my own life. As I reflect on my own moments of disappointment I can see where I went in God’s direction but by my own path. In these instances, I wonder if God has allowed me to experience disappointment to call me back to Himself. There is a positive in the text as well. Sometimes disappointment comes, not because of our failure to follow but preciously because of our following. The tribe of Judah could not drive the Canaanites out even as the Lord was with them (Judges 1.19). They hadn’t left God or neglected to obey Him. Somehow and for some reason, disappointment, the incongruity between their expectations and reality was part of God’s plan for them. That is a positive for me because it reminds me that God was in the disappointment trying to shape and mold them. As I think back over my own life I see that as well. Sometimes I have been faithful to God and I still experience disappointment. What gives? I don’t completely understand, but I do know this. God is with me and is trying to teach me something. Here is the challenge for me as I move forward. As I experience disappointments, and they will come, will I take the time to pause and reflect? Will I resist the immediate temptation to plow ahead and instead stop and ask where the incongruity between my expectations and experience lies? Is God trying to teach me something about myself? My faith walk? Or could it be that God has a larger purpose in mind, that He is trying to grow me? I am going to spend some time today pausing and reflecting on my own disappointments, asking God to show me what He is longing to teach me. 

 

A fellow traveler, 

 

Blake