Who really likes feeling frustrated? It's stupid. We become irrational. We become angry (sometimes at inanimate objects), or if you're anything like me, you withdraw.
You get slightly depressed, you get mopey, you get grumpy, you're angry at just about everything--but more than that, you're just sad.
Sad because a situation that you thought would go a certain way, didn't. Frustrated that you put up an expectation, and bought into it, that turned out to not be how things transpired.
And a little part of you that you invested into that perceived outcome dies. You don't want to get your hopes up about things. You think to yourself that if you don't invest emotionally, then maybe you won't get burned emotionally either.
That if you don't put yourself into a project or situation, and when that is eventually rejected, you won't have the personal investment or attachment and won't feel as if what's really being rejected is you.
Because that's how it feels. It's not the idea, not the plan, not the project that is being passed over.
It's you.
It's me. It's personal. Because that idea is a part of you. It's something you legitimately believe in.
Sure, maybe I'm over dramatizing it. But that's because I'm irrational when I'm frustrated.
--
Really, frustration is just the natural result of misplaced hope.
We place our hope in an outcome or event. We make assumptions that we are in control of a situation, and when it doesn't go as we hoped, we're frustrated.
It's completely natural. It's dumb to do...but it's natural. It's easy.
It's much easier to hope in things that are seen. That we think we understand.
It's so much harder to really hope in God. That we know we truly don't understand.
But that's where we need to put our hope. Because he's the only thing that isn't constantly fluctuating. He's constant. He won't disappoint.
It's ok to invest emotionally in God. To put our expectations in line with his will. It's more than ok. It's the only way I can think of to not end up frustrated.
