It sure is easier to maintain a thankful heart when I keep my expectations in check.
I’d like to say I was pondering this truth as part of a deep, spiritual Thanksgiving season meditation, but I wasn’t.
I was actually thinking about college football and in particular, the completely unexpected good season my Auburn Tigers have had.
After losing to everyone but Charzanne Beauty College last year, I wasn’t feeling optimistic about Auburn’s 2013 season. In fact, I wasn’t feeling anything but dread – last year’s debacle left my fan tank pretty dry.
Football in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a brutal business. Week after week, your team is either the proverbial bug or the windshield, and last year, Auburn was the bug. Week after torturous week, we ended up splattered all over fields across the South.
I’m not sure anybody expected Auburn to turn things around as drastically as they did this year. The Tigers are now 10-1 with a chance, albeit remote, of winning the toughest division in the nation if they can somehow beat Alabama this afternoon.
But even if we get trounced today, I’ll feel like it’s been a good year to be an Auburn fan. Even, dare I say, fun.
I was pleasantly amazed that somehow, except for one game at LSU, Auburn managed to win every time they took the field.
And each victory was especially sweet because it was unexpected.
Now let’s talk about some other Tigers who are also 10-1 and whose fans—at least some of the ones I know—seem to be experiencing the opposite of what I’ve been feeling this year.
Yes, I’m talking about the Clemson Tigers.
I need to say here that Clemson is my second-favorite team. Sorry, Carolina fans, but as the late columnist and author Lewis Grizzard aptly said, “Clemson is just Auburn with a lake.”
I’ve watched all of Clemson’s televised games this year and have observed that the players, coaches and fans seem to be under a ton of pressure this season because those Tigers, unlike Auburn, were supposed to win.
This was going to be the big year, the magical season Clemson has been waiting for. The table was set and nothing less than a national championship would do.
And because of that, the ride hasn’t perhaps been as much fun as it might have been had the victories been surprising.
When a perfect season is expected, wins are less likely to be savored and more likely to simply be marked off a “to do” list. The joy of today’s victory is quickly snuffed out by worries about tomorrow’s challenge.
And this principle certainly doesn’t just apply to football.
Expecting perfection anywhere in this imperfect world is a quick ticket to stress and ingratitude, I think. Many of the daily blessings that grace our lives are easy to overlook if we’re focused on what’s next, missing, or wrong.
I’m much happier when I lower my expectations of this life and remember that God has promised perfection not in this world, but in heaven, for those who believe in Jesus Christ.
I’m not advocating pessimism, but rather the realism Jesus expressed when He said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.”
Sometimes, maybe even somewhat regularly, life here is going to disappoint us. Bad stuff happens.
But accepting that doesn’t have to make us jaded and cynical. It can, instead, make every blessing and win in this life a delightful, surprising treasure.
The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17). When I stop demanding those gifts and simply appreciate them when they come, I see how abundant they really are.