2 Expectations Success And Failure

Expectations-- Success and Failure (by Bill Stevenson, May 9-10, 2007) from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary: EXPECT', v.t. [L. expecto; ex and specto, to look, that is, to reach forward, or to fix the eyes.] 1. To wait for. 2. To look for; to have a previous apprehension of something future, whether good or evil; to entertain at least a slight belief that an event will happen. We expect a visit that has been promised. We expect money will be paid at the time it is due, though we are often disappointed. EXPECTA'TION, n. 1. The state of expecting, either with hope or fear. 2. Prospect of good to come. My soul, wait thou only on God, for my expectation is from Him. Psalms 62 3. The object of expectation; the expected Messiah. 4. A state or qualities in a person which excite expectations in others of some future excellence; as a youth of expectation. SUCCESS'FUL, a. Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or intended; having the desired effect; hence, in a good sense, prosperous; fortunate. FA'ILURE, n. 2. Omission; non-performance; as the failure of a promise; a man's failure in the execution of a trust. During the trip my wife and I took from May 1 to May 7, 2007, I thought about expectations, success and failure because of the different happenings we experienced. For example, during the wedding reception Saturday night I wondered: what kind of expectations should born again Christians have in contrast to the common expectations of secular people? Or should the former just have hope so that they won’t be bitter or resentful when expectations are not fulfilled? Noah Webster wrote: “Expectation differs from hope. Hope originates in desire, and may exist with little or no ground of belief that the desired event will arrive. Expectation is founded on some reasons which render the event probably. Hope is directed to some good; expectation is directed to good or evil.” Questions at the end of this report indicate other wonderings I had. And what does Psalm 62 indicate? 1 Truly my soul waits upon God: from Him cometh my salvation. 2 He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved. 3 How long will you imagine mischief against a man? you shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall you be, and as a tottering fence. 4 They only consult to cast Him down from His excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. 5 My soul waits only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. 6 He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defense; I shall not be moved. 7 In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 8 Trust in Him at all times; 1

you people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. 9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. 10 Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. 11 God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongs unto God. 12 Also unto You, O Lord, belongs mercy: for You render to every man according to his work. Now for the trip report: We enjoyed the leg space in the United Airlines plane. The staff including the security check people were nice. The food was good. Both flights went on time. The movies we were able to see were good, especially “Freedom Writers”. I first saw a movie about the supposed future in England in which the youngest child is 18 years old and the hero had to get a pregnant African safely out of the country. The “Freedom Writers” was based on a book written by a group of students in a Southern California high school. They were of four different races and most of them were in gangs. Their new English teacher was able to influence peace and friendship by using the truths of the Holocaust and “The Diary of Anne Frank” book and a visit to a Holocaust museum. The two meals and the flight attendants were good. After arriving to the San Francisco International Airport and getting easily through customs, we only had to wait about15 minutes for Sherri to arrive at the San Francisco Airport. I had no expectations about any of the above mentioned and was just blessed by it. When I don’t expect, then I don’t worry. Sherri took us shopping the on Wednesday afternoon. I was shocked by the rise in the prices of groceries, especially the cake mixes which I had bought for 69 and 79 cents were now priced at a minimum of $2. At least the micro-wave popcorn was the same price and I bought two boxes of 15 packages for about $5. On Thursday, we went to San Francisco via the train. We had an a very enjoyable time in the Golden Gate Park. We were part of two tours of some of the de Young Museum and the Botanical Gardens. Both tour guides were humanists and believed in evolution, but they had some very interesting information. For dinner, we looked for a decent restaurant nearby. We turned down three, including one in which we sat in for a while and came to the conclusion that their pizzas were too expensive and were told that they were mission staff. So we ended up in a vegetarian restaurant called “Café Gratitude”. The menu items named self affirmations. Such was based on a board game called “the Abounding River”. The just mentioned had some good Bible verses in its guidebook. But most of the text in the just mentioned was of New Age doctrine. There were very good looking desserts. They even had specially treated water (for more information see www.buyaqualadvantage.com ) in containers with the word “Trust” on them. The plates had “What are you grateful for?” on them. And the staff were very friendly. But the pizza bread was hard to cut. This experience was an unexpected pleasant one. For more information about the restaurant and the board game, see http://www.withthecurrent.com/cafe.html . Then we went to the San Francisco Giants Baseball Team Stadium. Sherri bought us good seats by leftfield, but there were several rain showers and the Giants were beat badly even though they came within 3 runs of winning. The final score was 9-7 and we got to Redwood City about 11:15 PM. At least we were able to see some of the celebration that happened just after the Warriors accomplished the upset winning of the first round of NBA pro basketball playoff series against the top team Dallas Mavericks. On Friday, we went in a rented car to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We met one of the volunteers and he 2

gave some interesting information about fish, but he was like the tour guides previous mentioned in that he was a devout humanist and evolutionist. Dolo proclaimed amazement that the three could reject a supreme being creator of the thoughts for past artworks of tribes in three continents, the various plants and trees with wonderful characteristics, and the wonderful ocean life. I thought about the fact that each individual chooses what part of their native language to focus on memorizing because it is in the area of their interest. This was evident even in the Café Gratitude and in my knowledge of baseball I was trying to share with Dolo. Most people probably know only 25% of their native language because of having few interests and because of the limits of the brain. Dinner at Denny’s was not very good because we had a waitress who was confusing in trying to get Dolo to order a soup and was not very attentive. So how would you explain success and failure in relation to what I share in the previous paragraph? On Friday before getting to Monterey, we had chosen to stay at a motel on Reservation Ave. in Marina. Then the day which was the reason for our trip had come. We phoned my daughters hoping to get more information about the wedding preparations, but the rehearsal and dinner on Friday night had tired them so they were not available to answer their cell phones. Dolo wanted to go to a hair stylist and 4 said they did not have time for her, but later in a Walgreens store, a real estate agent heard her request information of one and he led us to one in Capitola who was able to serve Dolo after we had lunch in a Round Table Pizza restaurant. On Wednesday, after seeing the Round Table Pizza restaurant in Woodside Plaza, I hoped that Dolo experience a meal in such a place. While eating my chicken and artichoke hearts pizza, I was able to watch the end of the Sharks ice hockey game that they lost, the pre-Kentucky Derby show, and some of the Giants game. Dolo enjoyed her vegetarian pizza. After Dolo returned from the hairdresser, we went to the Santa Cruz boardwalk and found the miniature golf place. Dolo had the best 1st round score and the last round score, but I had less shots and won. It was a course in a Pirates time motif. We made it to the The Chaminade Resort at 4:20 PM and the wedding was supposed to begin at 5 PM. I had to shave and change into my suit first in the bathroom while Dolo watched our presents and suit-bag. Two of the wedding party came and I asked one of them to take the wedding presents to where they were being collected. Andrew and Michelle thought that spending so much money for their wedding was a good investment so that they would not forget the importance of such an occasion of their commitment for a lifetime of being thankful and loving each other. It was a well-planned wedding, but Andrew did some spontaneous humor during it and the reception. He is sure not shy like I was. My daughters gave good a poem and Scripture during the wedding and Mitra and Miriam gave good toast speeches during the dinner. My children were wonderful hosts of the party, having meaningful talks with many. My son was so nice to me. The table decorations were wonderful and included a nice photo of the couple for all who came to the dinner. The prime rib was under medium cooked. The cake was wonderful. Before the wedding I was able to talk with some of my former in-laws I had not seen since my oldest daughter’s wedding about ten years ago. The Holy Spirit helped me say the right things throughout the night, mostly of thankfulness to those who felt that I was a failure in marriage and life and to the man who influenced Del to divorce me. But I realized that I was seeing again those former relatives who had a different understanding of what success and failure was and also had different expectations and hopes in life. Most of them had one career in farming and remained in the San Fernando Valley. I had had many different ministries and jobs and I moved to many places because of such. But I did have successes that they don’t know of because there were in the education and computer fields. During the special occasion in Santa Cruz, the Holy Spirit helped me be enthusiastic and joyful in seeing them and I had some good discussions too. Those who are failures usually complain a lot or are indifferent in such situations. I didn’t complain once about my first wife or my former in-laws. I did not get in any 3

arguments. We left the resort after midnight and I had no regrets except for my accidental bumping into a caterer causing some of the dishes she was carrying to fall and spilling my drink during the toasting time. We had a nice good-bye session with my children. I felt so much divine peace when we were getting in our rented car that I didn’t share the Yahoo directions about how to get back to Redwood City. I felt like I was experiencing a high (and I never experienced the psychedelic drug highs) being so thankful about what had happened in the special wedding). But we got lost in our return trip to Redwood City and took about an hour extra for the return trip. It was so dark and there were minimal signs. But God kept us safe in the foothills: we didn’t drive down a cliff and a deer in the middle of one of the narrow roads did not panic and hit the car we were using. On Sunday, we had a wonderful visit with a recent widow. She and her husband let us stay in their home during the second part of our last California trip of 3 weeks in December 2004 and January 2005. Dolo and I were also thankful that Mom’s and Sherri’s three cats were very friendly with us; they used to be shy. Sherri made a very nice dinner on Sunday night. She had made a wonderful Bitter Chocolate Cake the week before. And the sleeper couch was very nice to sleep on in the livingroom. The Wednesday night dinner and Friday sack lunch that Ivy (Mom’s caregiver) were very good too. We were so blessed with another almost perfect California happening. On Monday, we arrived at the San Francisco International Airport about 11:30 AM. We soon found out that United Airlines is much better than Lufthansa Airlines. The latter had less leg space, no private screens for the movies (only two movies played once at the end of the 10 hour flight via two screens in front above the isles), and only-doing-their-job staff. Going over Canada, serving of drinks to go with dinner were delayed for some of us because of very rough turbulence that the pilots were not warned about. That experience was a little scary, but I don’t think anyone threw up his or her dinner. After hour 2 1/2 hour layover wait, we were told that the second flight from Frankfurt to Hannover would be delayed about 40 minutes. The drinks were served just before we landed in Hannover and so we just had less than 5 minutes to drink them. But at least we arrived back in our hometown after about 24 hours since we had woken up on Monday. We were very tired and took a short nap before eating dinner. Hope to fully recover by Sunday, even though Dolo has to work on Friday. I did not share how the spiritual enemy had tried to get me very angry Thursday through Saturday before the wedding, but the Holy Spirit is a wonderful comforter, counselor, and guide in order that a thankful father could have a behavior success during the important happening for his son and three daughters. Living Proverbs 3:5-6 thinking usually has wonderful results. I was able to do more than just survive the wedding and reception. I was able to be a good ambassador for God and His wonderful truths. For photos I took during the special week in California, see http://photos.yahoo.com/wls8usa/. Use the Slideshow feature for best views of photos and descriptions. This trip caused me to think about what the following questions indicate: What kind of expectations and hopes do most secular individuals have? What kind of expectations hopes should born-again Christians have? Why should one keep expectations to a minimum? What do most secular individuals consider success? What do most secular individuals consider failure? What does God consider human being success? What does God consider human being failure? What kinds of focus do many secular individuals have? What kinds of focus should born-again Christians have? How should we discern what to tolerate and not tolerate when relating to others? How does agapè love help in the situations like I indicated about my trip? 4