Former Senator Bob Dole once commented on a disappointing political defeat by saying, "After hearing the results, I slept like a baby that night. I woke up every two hours and cried." Disappointments can do that to us.
How do you handle disappointments in your life? Someone once said, "I have learned to turn disappointments into God’s appointments." I like that. God can take our disappointments and make something good come from it.
That is the faith of Romans 8:28. The Apostle Paul affirmed, "All things work together for good for those who love God." This doesn't say that God causes disappointments in our lives. But God can take our disappointments and use them for our own good.
The great French writer Victor Hugo was exiled from France in 1855 because of his political statements against Napoleon III. He ended up on the island of Guernsey and was there for nearly 20 years. He was only 48 years old. This had to have been a terrible disappointment for Victor Hugo. But during this time in exile, he wrote “Les Miserables,” one of the greatest novels of all time. It could very well be that his best work would have never been written without this disappointment in his life.
The Apostle Paul wanted to go to Spain to preach. (Romans 15:24) He never got there. Instead, he found himself in prison in Rome. But in prison he grew in his faith, and he wrote some important letters, which became part of the New Testament. The world is better today because of his disappointment.
So, the question to consider is this: are you experiencing a disappointment in your life today? Why not turn to God and see if your disappointment might not become God’s appointment?