Dealing with Disappointment

In this episode of the Faithful Agent podcast, Garrett discusses how Christians can handle disappointment, particularly in light of recent events that led to the cancellation of a conference. He shares personal experiences and insights on trusting in God's sovereignty, rejoicing and persevering through trials, and seeking God's comfort and strength during difficult times. The conversation emphasizes the importance of viewing disappointments through a lens of faith and hope, ultimately leading to personal growth and a deeper relationship with God.

Takeaways

Disappointment is a common experience for believers.
Trusting in God's sovereignty helps us find peace.
Frustration often arises from blocked expectations.
Trials can refine our faith and character.
Rejoicing in trials is essential for spiritual growth.
Temporary comforts can distract us from seeking God.
God's plans are ultimately for our good.
We should seek God's comfort in times of disappointment.
Our struggles can prepare us to help others.
Faith can transform our perspective on setbacks.

Chapters

00:00 Navigating Disappointment as Christians
12:15 Trusting in God's Sovereignty
15:25 Rejoicing and Persevering in Trials
17:53 Seeking God's Comfort and Strength

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent podcast. It is great to be with you all once again this week. And today we're actually going to talk about how do we handle disappointment? How do Christians handle disappointment? Because as you may or may not know, if you're listening to this, we had our conference that was coming up literally this week. I'm recording on a Monday. It was going to kick off on Wednesday, go Thursday, Friday. And we had spent months and months planning it, super excited about it. Quite honestly, it was a lot of work, but I was starting to get excited about it in this past week. Just was fired up because I love seeing you all love spending time with you all. And because of the hurricane that came through on the East coast and specifically went through Greenville, South Carolina, where the conference was going to be, we decided to cancel the conference because the church that we were going to. Needs to focus on their people and their community not worry about hosting us and the hotels where we were going to take up Hotel rooms didn't need to be giving them to us They needed to be giving them to the community that needed them. So it was a difficult decision and quite honestly, I was disappointed even a little discouraged by it and I want to talk about how do we handle that as believers because our lives and certainly our businesses are are filled with discouragement filled with challenges you know this morning i'm sitting down meeting with my lead agent jesse and he's talking about spending all weekend with this buyer and she finally pulls the trigger on this house there's multiple offers finally pulls the trigger on the house she's seen over a hundred houses she's driven past she finally pulls the trigger on this one house he negotiates it And even though their offer is just a little bit worse, the listing agent calls Jesse and says, Hey, you guys are going to win this house. If your buyer is willing to move up closing just one week, just one week, that's it. And the buyer said, no, I know the Lord wants me to close on this day. And so, no, I won't do it. And I'll get the house anyways. Well, what happened? She lost the house. Right. And how frustrating, how discouraging is that? How disappointing is it? to be gone from your family all weekend, just to loose out on a house because the client was unwilling to just be realistic. That happens a lot in our industry, right? I was just faced with this discouragement, disappointment, having to cancel the conference. And how do we handle those things? So we're gonna talk about that today. I've got three main points for you. But before I get into those, let me share with you this joke. This is actually a joke from Jim Gaffigan. So we're just not doing chat GBT Christian jokes anymore. Cause honestly, I can't find any good ones. So my dad gave me this book called dumb dad jokes, something for everyone from ages six to one six. So thank you dad. You know exactly what I want. So this is a joke from Jim Gaffigan. He says, there should be a children's song. If you're happy and you know it, keep it to yourself and let your dad sleep. So true. So true. That's fantastic. Okay. So how do we deal with disappointment? How do we deal with discouragement? So three main points for today. Then we're going to break them down. Number one, trust in God's sovereignty and plan. Number two, rejoice and persevere in trials. And finally seek God's comfort and strength. So number one, trusting in God's sovereignty and plan. When we are faced with disappointment, discouragement, frustration, we have to remember. And as I'm sharing all of this today, y'all, please know that I'm reminding myself the same thing, because this is easy to say, it's hard to live out. But when we're faced with disappointment, we've got to remember that God has a greater plan that we might not see yet. And if we trust in His sovereignty, It helps us find peace and perspective even amidst the challenges and frustration and sovereignty, right? Meaning that literally there is not a molecule in the entire universe that is out of place. R.C. Sproul used to teach on that all the time and with such great power and truth, there is not a single molecule in the entire universe that is out of place. The Lord sovereignly puts everything where it belongs. And so we can trust in that. In Jeremiah 29 and 11, says, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. And that first remind us that God's plans are always for our ultimate good, even when they involve temporary setbacks. Right? We are reminded in Romans eight that the Lord works all things for the good of those who love Him. And so we can look at circumstances. We can look at the buyer who takes us all weekend, right? We can look at this hurricane that causes us to cancel this conference. Now, let's be honest, that is minor and minimal compared to those who are affected by the hurricane, right? But we can look at these circumstances and we can start to feel the discouragement. But where does this frustration come from? You know, my wife, when one summer during college, she was an intern at a local church in Williamsburg, Virginia. I'm in Hampton Roads, Virginia, Newport News, Virginia, where we live. She was a, a, intern at this church and the leader, this youth pastor, always used to say frustration stems from blocked expectations. So frustration stems from blocked expectations and I used to honestly think like that doesn't even make sense. But as I've gotten older, I've started to understand. Okay. So frustration only comes because what we expected to happen didn't happen. And so now we're frustrated by that, right? As opposed to if we were able and we aren't to be perfect and understanding in the Lord's sovereign plan, there would be no frustration because the expectation, right? Is that the Lord will sovereignly ordain and lead all things to come to pass, that nothing that comes to pass is outside of His purpose and plan. No matter how difficult it may feel, this side of heaven, right? No matter how difficult it may feel in the flesh, nothing happens without the Lord being sovereignly in control. And so therefore frustration wouldn't come because the blocked expectation, the expectation should be The Lord's going to do what the Lord does. The Lord is in control and trusting in His sovereign plan. Now, friends, that's difficult, right? It is difficult. I once heard a pastor say, because sometimes we're on the bad quote unquote side of God's sovereign plan. And his point wasn't that because that's not biblical. His point is not that the Lord does anything that is not for our good because scripture is clear that that's how the Lord operates, right? His point was from a quote unquote human perspective, you might get hit by a car, end up in the hospital. And though we could know that this is the Lord's sovereign purpose and that it is, it is the Lord working in us for our good that we are in the hospital. It doesn't mean that we don't feel like we're on the bad end of his sovereign plan, right? This Friday, we come across come up to the two year anniversary of when my mom passed away. Now, I'm not entering that day so excited and amazed and overjoyed that two years ago, mom passed away. In fact, last night I was struggling to sleep because I just kept remembering and replaying those nights in the hospital, staying up all night watching mom and I can't talk about her. I won't be able to hold it together honestly, but I'm not walking into that saying, wow, what great sovereignty, right? Because in my flesh, I'm thinking, man, but I know that was the Lord's sovereign purpose yet. Gosh, it feels hard. Gosh, it feels difficult. It feels challenging. The point is this. We can have those challenges. We can say, man, this is tough while also trusting. But Lord, this was your sovereign purpose and plan. And I will trust you in that. Right. I was talking to someone recently who admittedly, and I appreciated so much his honesty of saying, he lost his parents when he was relatively younger. And he said, I used to pray to the Lord and ask him to heal them. And he just didn't. And so they died. And I just said, you know what? I don't believe in God anymore. And when I pray, I'm praying to my parents. Right. But we're having this discussion and he says, you know what? Maybe I will start praying to God. Maybe I'll Maybe I'll give that a try. And we're talking through this, right? Because he's had this real pain, this real hurt, this real struggle. And he's talked about the reality for him is he felt like he ended up on the wrong side of the Lord's purpose. And because as... humans and our nature is that we want everything to go our way. We want to be as comfortable as possible. And so when things don't go our way, we start to doubt that God is good. And so I just asked him this question because I said, brother, I get it, man. And I appreciate your honesty and willingness to share that and was able to share the gospel with him. But I also said, hey, you know, just from a rational perspective, Feel this way too that I want to be in control of the outcome and I think that I would do better being in control Of the outcome, but if I actually take a step back and I say, okay, I've got two options here One option is me being in control. I don't even know what's gonna happen five minutes from now The other is you know for his purposes whatever you want to call it, right? Of course, I know that it's the Lord but whatever you want to call it. This is the one who knows all things, has ordained all things, who has literally created all things and knows exactly what's going to come to pass, who do you actually want to be in charge? Well, of course you want this all-knowing Father, this all-knowing God to be in control and be in charge. And so when we actually look at it from that perspective, we should be able to say, yes, I do trust in your sovereignty, Lord, because I can't see the bigger picture. I can't even see... the entire corner of one half of the photo, right? Because we have such limited perspective, but you Lord have sovereignly ordained all things. And therefore, when my client doesn't want to buy that house, when my seller loses out on that contract, when... my commission check has to get cut because I'm just trying to make the deal work. When I thought I had this new client in the pipeline and they decide to work with somebody else and I only find out later. When I'm struggling to convert these deals, when I'm going through all of these challenges in my own business, when I lose one of my best employees, when whatever happens happens, we can stop and say, well, wait a minute, from my limited tiny perspective, this is not good. But praise God that He who can see all things and make all things come to pass, He can see the big picture and He is the one in control. Therefore, I will trust in His sovereign plan. Okay. Point two, rejoice and persevere in trials. Disappointment can definitely refine our faith, right? And produce perseverance. God uses trials in us to shape our character. and draw us closer to him. James 1 verses 2 to 4 says, and maturity. this point won't be nearly as long as the first point. But I remember there's a book about marriage that I haven't even read. But but the back cover of the book has stuck with me for years. My wife and I are coming up on 12 years of marriage on October 7th. I love my bride more than the day that I met her. I didn't write. We don't know each other when we get married. We think, I love you so much, but I don't know anything about her. The more I've gotten to know my wife, the the more amazed and thankful I am for her and the more that I love her, right? And it's not just this infatuation love. It's the depth and this deep love for my bride. But here's the reality. I'm looking at this book. This was probably year one or two of our marriage. I don't even remember the name of the book, but the back cover says, what if marriage was not for your happiness, but for your holiness? And that stuck with me as I think, wow. At end of the day, yes, my marriage makes me way happier than I deserve, right? But it's not for that. It's to make me more like Christ. And so when we think about and persevere in these trials, whatever it is that's going on, whether you just got hit by a hurricane or you had to cancel a conference or whatever is going on in your personal life. Or again, you take that client around for a year only to find out they decided to rent and you've wasted all that time and you've shown all of those homes. And guess what? You made nothing. Even in those trials, what if those were not meant for our happiness? Those were not meant for our success. Those were not meant for our bank accounts. Those were meant for our holiness to make us more like Christ. You see, if we shift perspective, if we understand what the Lord's ultimate goal is for us to make us more like His son, things line up in the proper perspective. We see quote unquote losses and failures in a different light. We see even wins in a different light. They're not to make our lives easy. They're not to make us rich and wealthy and all of those things, right? They're to make us more like Christ. They're to equip us. to accomplish the work the Lord has put in front of us. We can rejoice and persevere in those trials knowing His intent is to grow us and shape us to be more like Him. And finally, number three, we can seek the Lord's comfort and strength. For us, instead of turning to temporary comforts, which... Again, let me confess here. I do that all the time, whether it's through just wanting to watch a show and zone out, right? Whether it's scrolling Instagram, whether it's whatever it is, right? For us to just zone out and not deal with the problem. That tends to be one of my struggles. If a problem arises, I'm like, I'll just ignore it and maybe it'll go away. But that doesn't actually work, right? But that's how it feels. Like maybe if I just ignore it, it'll go away. But the reality is for us, instead of turning to those temporary comforts, We should be seeking the Lord's presence for peace and strength. This disappointment, this discouragement that we feel should be leading us to rely more deeply on the Lord. I waste, I waste these disappointing times too often by turning towards the quote unquote comfort of the world, as opposed to saying, Lord, I feel this deeply. Will you please teach me to rely on you more? 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 to 4 says, The Lord provides the comfort that we need during disappointment. He also in His kindness equips us to share that comfort with others in similar situations. Instead of saying, I can't believe I lost that client. I need to go drink that beer and I need to go overeat. I need to go indulge in whatever it is, right? Instead of seeking that, instead of saying that didn't go as planned, I'm just going to totally mind numb by scrolling and, and, and binging on Netflix, whatever it is, instead of those things. which, brother and sister, that's what our flesh longs for. Instead of pursuing those things, may we instead pursue the Lord's comfort and the Lord's strength, knowing that not only is He using it to bring about in us more Christ-like attributes, but we also know that He is preparing us to comfort those who will have the same need in the future. It is not easy to overcome discouragement. It is not easy to face disappointment and frustration. It is not easy to overcome setbacks and continue to push and fight and long for the reality of what the Lord has for us in these day-to-day challenges. And brother and sister, especially in real estate, I get it. I know the challenges that we face on a day-to-day basis. I've run around with those clients who cheat on you, right? I've run around with those sellers who had a great offer and then decided for whatever reason, no, we're just not going to sell our home. I've dealt with those agents who curse you out. I've dealt with the people that say you're not worth what you're charging. You need to give me a discount, even though you did exactly what they hired you to do. I've dealt with all of those things. I get it. But it does not mean we are allowed to fall prey. to what the devil would desire of us, which is just stop trusting in the goodness and sovereignty and kindness of the Lord. Trust in God's sovereignty and plan, rejoice and persevere in trials, seek his comfort and strength. If we view disappointment through a lens of faith and hope in the Lord's promises, we will be made more like Christ. What if this business is not for our happiness, but it's for our holiness? I love you, faithful agents. I will see you next week.