I see up close the real consternation of someone I love who is captured by inherited expectations. Lunar new year may be a day of celebration, but it is also a time where certain provisions and specially prepared foods must be on the table for the ancestors. There is anxiety, much rushing around to find ingredients, to prepare food, to exchange small gifts with many others.
High expectations create chains that bind.
I came to set the captives free, Jesus declared. Love the Lord and your neighbour. Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.
Christian expectations are also high, but with the Holy Spirit we are given the strength to fulfil them, by his grace.
In the desert, prepare the way of the Lord. May this Lent be a time of true preparation. Help me, Lord, to discard those expectations which bind me, and live and walk instead in the freedom only you give. Give me a discerning spirit to recognise what is from you, and what is not, and the strength to accept only that which is from you.
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