Super Bowl expectations

I am a huge Cleveland Browns fan. Being a Browns fan, you come to have certain expectations of the team. Usually the expectation is to be disappointed with their lack of success. But, this year was going to be different. This year the Browns were the sweethearts of the early season prognosticators. Many had predicted the Browns to go to, if not win, the Super Bowl. As a long suffering Browns fan, that really got me pumped up. That is why their 4 wins and 12 losses this year seemed to sting a little worse then years passed.

It is like that sometimes for Christ followers. It seems that people have high expectations of us, sometimes realistic, sometimes not. That is why it is so easy to thoroughly disappoint people. As a Christ follower, people think you should act one way or do things a certain way, and when you don't, they are disappointed. I think some of the expectations are valid. As a Christ follower, I should be nice to people and go out of my way to help others. Other expectations are just not realistic. "As a Christ follower, you should never get mad." That's just not realistic. Of course, I should be able to control my anger and not lash out at people, but I get mad. Striving to always meet the expectations of this world will leave us and others disappointed. All we can do is strive to meet the expectations of Jesus. That is all that we are expected to do.