Exceeding Expectations
It’s recently been report card season. Remember when you’d be handed that envelope and hope to see good grades when you opened it? Often, the best score possible was an E – for “exceeds expectations.” (My kids now get an O for “outstanding” instead.) E’s were rare, reserved for truly over-the-top accomplishment.
I think it’s safe to say most students have never had a report card filled with exclusively E’s. That would be beyond perfection; not only accomplishing everything that was asked but actually doing more than anyone thought could be done.
You know who exceeds expectations, constantly, in every area? Our Heavenly Father.
Our expectations for a holy and just God could reasonably be that he abandon us to our own foolishness. That he punish us for the myriad times we’ve disobeyed and dishonored him. That he cut ties with his creation once and for all. But he doesn’t choose that. He goes above and beyond what we could hope for and he chooses to love us and redeem us and keep us with him eternally.
“But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
And he keeps on surprising us. Maybe we wake up in the morning to impossible hardship, or find ourselves at the crossroads of two terrible choices, but the Lord’s goodness is not hobbled by our limited wisdom. Sometimes his solutions are like nothing we’ve ever seen before – perfect beyond our wildest expectations. No matter the situation, he always delivers on his promise to work all things for our good.
“In fact, as many promises as God has made, they have always been ‘Yes’ in him.”
2 Corinthians 1:20
His love goes even further than that. It empowers us to exceed expectations, as well. It’s been quite a few years since I received a report card, and I’d be scared, frankly, to see a score of my daily accomplishments. “Uses time wisely?” “Is attentive?” “Models Christian behavior?” “Demonstrates respect for others?” D at best. I suppose all I can expect of myself as a sinful human is… more sinning. But as redeemed humans we are able to achieve so much more!
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
We unassuming mortals become important to God’s kingdom. We are enabled to share the life-changing message of Jesus to other starving souls. We are called to reflect the Son’s light into all the dark places. We can move and serve as the hands and feet of Christ in the world in which we find ourselves.
“For the God who said, ‘Light will shine out of darkness,’ is the same one who made light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ. We hold this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power is from God and not from us.” 2 Corinthians 4:6-7
Outstanding.