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Hope expectations.

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.

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