Settling into a new
job with new expectations. My expectations and the, some known and some yet to
find out, expectations others have of me.
And yet I’m finding
the greatest challenge is knowing how to expect hopefully when it comes to
those I am there to walk alongside. What do hopeful expectations look like
without them being totally coloured by my perspective?
Perspective. The way
we see life is coloured by our lives; what we have lived and are living. What does
hope look like through my perspective, but more importantly, through the
perspective of the ones I am wanting to carry hope for?
Potential. Interacting
with people who walk with less hope. Seeing the potential they have which has
been quenched by choices they’ve made. Or rather, the potential is there, but
the walking fully in it is a different path than the one they have chosen. How
do you help them look at themselves not through a lens of failure, but through
the lens of hope and possibility?
Patience. I am
realising that my hope and my expectation can’t be put on them as a formula for
moving forward. For some the only expectation they are able to fulfil is to
come and sit. In their journey that is a victory. In their journey that is what
takes courage and everything they can muster up the strength to do. And I want
to see that. I want to join with them right where they find themselves in the
journey of life, and walk at their pace. Standing with them when they stop,
cheering them on when they move forward, and seeing the path of hope for them
when all they see is mountains in front of them. Giving them the dignity of
choosing the pace at which they walk. And giving them the freedom to choose a
different path if they want, accepting that the same way as I have freedom to
choose how I live my life, they also have the freedom of choice. Even if that
is making choices that aren’t good.
And so I find myself
in this new assignment, new job, new part of my journey. And I am still
figuring out how I do this. How to expect more, while at the same time not
burdening with my expectations. How to hope more, while at the same time not
making that hope distant and unattainable, but something within reach.
It’s a journey for
them, and it is definitely a journey for me. And yet, even with the lack of
hope that I see, I have a sneaking suspicion that I am going to walk into more
hope than I’ve ever walked in before, because God is a God of incredible hope,
and He loves to enter into hopeless situations and turn them around.