Managed Expectations

Luke 18, 19

College, oh, so long ago, brought new opportunities to what were growing interests back then, flight school, photography with darkroom experience, even a class in energy and alternative energy sources. You know, the usual interests for a student in Bible studies. And so I purchased and setup my own darkroom for developing black and white film and printing my own pictures. No, there weren't digital cameras back then. When I graduated from electronics school one of my very last classes was on a completely brand new electronic component, there weren't any course books available on it yet. It was called, (wait for it), a microprocessor. So photography at that time was all film for the general public.

In complete darkness you opened the film cannister, removed the film and put the film in the small light tight developing tank. Then you mixed the chemicals for developing the film and poured them in through a light tight opening. The temperature had to be right, but as equally important was the timing of the chemical bath. To much time and the images could be completely removed. To little time and the image would be very dark.

Once you successfully developed the film, washed, and dried the negatives then the fun stuff began. You setup your enlarger (a large device with excellent lenses to print small or large pictures, 3x5, 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 14x16, and so on). The larger you made the picture the better the picture paper had to be to not get a grainy picture. And that also depended on the quality of the film you used. But once setup for whatever size picture you desired you cut a strip of print paper and laid it on the base of the enlarger. This was done in a darkened room using a special red light that wouldn't affect the black and white photo paper. With the negative in the enlarger you would cover most of the paper strip and turn the timer on for the enlarger. After five seconds you move the covering down a little and again each five seconds until the whole strip was exposed. Then you took the strip and put it in the developing tray with the proper chemicals and watch the picture come to the light. From there you would check the final results on the strip, see which was the best exposure time, then do it again with only one second for each exposure. This way you narrow down to the best exposure time with the enlarger set for that paper from that negative. After that you could set the timer to the exact exposure time and print as many pictures as you wanted. For printing pictures you could manage your expectations down to the second for the highest quality image.

In Luke 18 there is a rich young ruler who comes to Jesus. He is used to managing his expectations and asks, What must I do to inherit eternal life? He is rich and so apparently has managed his money well. He’s a ruler so he has also apparently earned a place, a position by managing people well. So it only makes sense, to him, that he should be able to manage eternal life the same way. He’s kept the commandments Jesus lists, but Jesus turns turns him to the heart of his problem, his heart, managing the true purpose of his wants. And the rich young ruler went away very sad because of the wealth his managed expectations had gained him.

In Luke 19 there is another rich man who only hopes to be able to possibly see Jesus. Jesus and his twelve disciples are on their way from old Jericho and through new Jericho and this rich tax collector small in stature climbs a tree in hopes to only see Jesus pass by him. Jesus stops right below him, looks up at him, and asks him to come down so they all could eat at his house. (Kind of makes you wonder how Matthew felt remembering Jesus coming by his tax collecting place and saying, Follow me, then having that banquet in his home that night. And then the changes in his life since that day.)

We are not told of the conversation at the meal at the home of Zacchaeus. We are only told the results. Zaccheaus voluntarily says he will give half of his goods to the poor and return four times as much to those he has wrongly charged taxes from them. Zacchaeus only had the expectation of the hope of seeing Jesus, not asking how to manage his life to gain eternal life. Of him Jesus said, Today salvation has come to this house.

Rich tax collectors were hated both for working for Rome against the Jewish people. Rich rulers weren't as despised because they didn't work for Rome, but maybe envied for their ability to gain wealth, and depending on how they ruled potentially hated for how they handled themselves in that ruling position. But it was the internal struggle and how the heart was open that differentiated between the rich ruler and the rich tax collector.

My meditation doesn't lead me to want to be a tax collector, nor even a rich ruler (not saying anything about young at this point). But it does challenge me when I ask the Lord, what do you want me to do? Being creative whether in photography, or my years in electronics making things work, in software coding applications that work, or even now in bookkeeping reconciling revenues and expenses there are expectations I must manage. But maybe the Lord doesn't show me “what He wants me to do” because He is the one managing His expectations of me. When the disciples asked Jesus to “increase our faith” (Luke 17) He told them of the servants who had worked in the fields all day, but when it came time for supper they prepared the meal for the master first. Their words were, “We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which we was our duty to do.”

He is our Master. He has told us what to do. When asked, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” And Jesus answered and said unto them, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6)

Whatever gifts and abilities God has given each believer it is so important to believe on Him. One of us plants, another one waters, but it is God who gives the increase. He is the one managing the expectations.