So I'm thinking.......

I was watching Joel Osteen this weekend (by the way it is a lot easier to listen to him then it is to watch, he is too animated and I lose his message sometimes watching his frozen smile and constant blinking) and he was talking about expectations. He said something along the lines of 'God meets you at your expectations'. The whole idea behind this is if you expect to have a crappy day God is going to meet you there. If you expect your day to be filled with greatness God is going to meet you there instead.

If you expect God to raise the bar while your just hanging on it that isn't going to happen. You need to push the bar up with Him and once you start to push it up He will take over and help you raise the bar higher than you could imagine. (By the way, that is my analogy so if you think it sucks don't blame Joel.... but if you think it is money make sure to give credit where credit is due..... I give God all the credit I get by the way....)

So I get to thinking.... Think about all the miserable, and I mean completely miserable people in and around your life, What do they have in common? They all expect life to suck on some level. Or they are bitter and filled with anger most of the time. Or they go right to the negative answer and see the worst that can happen in most situations. These people usually have some animosity toward people that truly enjoy life. But at the end of the day they all really have a common thread, they don't really manage their own expectations. They almost look forward to bad things happening so they can say stuff like 'Knew that was coming' or 'Just my luck'. C'mon blog readers, you know who I'm talking about.

So I start to ask myself some questions that I wanted to share with you today.

• What do you expect from your days?
• Do you dwell on the negative of the day or do you see the proverbial silver lining?
• Here is a tough one... What do you think God would want for you that day?
• Here is an even tougher one... Do you expect God to do for you if you don't do for yourself?

Side note: I know a lot of you that have known me for a long time aren't really sure where all this "God talk" is coming from but for the record:

1. I was baptised as a Christian adult in 07
2. I attend church every weekend
3. I volunteer for aforementioned church every weekend
4. I am a member of the best small group (bible study group for all you Catholics) in the world
5. This is the best thing that has happened to me so far in my life and this isn't a fad or a phase and I'm not part of a cult that kills baby kittens or anything weird. God grabbed my heart one day last year and I'm on board all the way with this thing.
6. I even read the bible - true story.
7. For those of you that knew me when I was a dedicated agnostic - All I can say is not all change is bad, trust me on this.

Anyway....

Here is what I usually get out of my day. I get up, I go to work, I come home, I go to bed; you know like rinse and repeat. I have to believe that there is more than this. I can't think that this mundane living is what I'm called to do.

So here it is. NO MORE. (for my friends to the south, NO MAS) From this point forward, I expect more from my day. I expect more from myself and this is really going to suck for some of you but I expect more from you too! Don't tell me that you give all of yourself everyday.... I don't and if you can be honest you don't either. Think of the potential that can be unleashed if we thought about what our life could be and actually acted to make that thought real. What if we thought about what the day could bring instead of waiting for the day to happen? What could happen if we all pushed ourselves to not only want more but to EXPECT it? I know you can do better for yourself then 'Just my luck'. I know I can.

Begin each day as if it were on purpose. Lets just try for the next year to live our lives the best we can and expect the best for ourselves and the people we influence. Raise your expectations higher than you thought you could and God will be there waiting.....