Yesterday I was crowing like a rooster, sharing that I was going to see an early screening of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The screening was in San Diego and, even after driving three hours to get home from Las Vegas, I was more than happy to drive two hours to San Diego. What’s seven hours of driving in a single day if I get to see the next film in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe early?
I would have been happy to drive seven hours and see The Winter Soldier. Unfortunately I drove seven hours and didn’t see The Winter Soldier.
Even though we had tickets, the event was oversold and Alycia and I didn’t get to the theater in time. So instead of watching the movie we got back in the car and headed back home, another two hours of driving in front of us.
I was very disappointed but not as disappointed as a little boy who also missed out on the screening.
The little boy and his dad were walking back to the parking lot and told us that there weren’t any tickets left. The little boy had tears in his eyes and I could see that he was clearly disappointed. We all walked back to our cars dejected and then the little boy’s disappointment turned to rage.
The poor kid Hulked out, jumped on the bumper of his dad’s car and then climbed up on the roof. He wanted to see The Winter Soldier and didn’t know how to handle his disappointment. Taking it out on his dad’s Corolla seemed like the best option.
Unfortunately we don’t always handle disappointment any better.
We get disappointed when our expectations don’t match our reality. Our lives are filled with expectations and they’re not always going to be met. We need to learn how deal with disappointment because we’re going to experience it sooner or later.
Dealing with disappointment is easier when seen in light of God’s sovereignty. If we trust that God is in control and wants what’s best for us, then even when our reality isn’t what we expected we won’t be that disappointed.
We may want to jump up and down on a car but we’ll just settle for some huffing and puffing.
How do you handle disappointment?
In the words of the Man in Black (Westley), from THE PRINCESS BRIDE, “Get used to disappointment.”
I very much thought about that scene.