Finding Purpose in Disappointment

Have you ever felt like a balloon that has lost its air, dropped to the ground, and been trampled? Crushed by the disappointment of deferred hope. Dreams shattered. Love unrequited. Promises Broken. In moments like these, we feel empty and ugly. Our sense of failure and brokenness overwhelm. So, how do we find purpose in deep disappointment?

Earlier this month, a huge disappointment brought things crashing down around me. I pushed through the next six days, doing what needed to be done with little time to stop and think about that horrible pain and shock still lingering in my heart. Always the weight of the new reality brought by that disappointment hung over me. It could — no, it would — change everything.

When I finally had a moment to stop, the pent-up ugliness spilled out. The disappointment, the questions, the discouragement, the uncertainty of what the future would look like, my sense of complete failure — all of it. That ugly spilling, of course, led to a greater sense of disappointment in myself. I prayed a lot. I had been praying already, but I prayed more. I mentally searched the Scriptures for something to grab on to. Promise after promise came to my mind, but somehow I couldn’t quite catch hold of them and hang on.

Finally, I went to my office when I knew no one would be around and pulled out my Bible. I needed to understand the purpose of what I passing through and how to deal with the empty, worn down feeling in my heart. I needed hope.

When I was a little girl, my grandma had a rock tumbler. The process intrigued me. How could a dull, ordinary rock go into that little machine and come out as a beautiful shiny stone? I gave little thought to the grinding that stone must go through. Time after time it must endure hardship, first mixed with coarse grit, then with a finer…

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