Unfulfilled Expectations

When the 101st Airborne first reached this remote village in Iraq's northwestern Sinjar Mountains in 2003, elderly Yazidi tribesmen were thrilled: Their ancient religious prophesy had come true.

"We believed that Jesus Christ was coming with a force from overseas to save us," said the village leader, Khalil Sadoon Haji Jundu, wrapping his gold-trimmed cloak around him against the morning chill. Scrawled behind him on the wall, images of U.S. helicopters and soldiers depicted the arrival of the blue-eyed fighters awaited by the Yazidi, an obscure sect of sun worshipers with roots in Zoroastrianism who have inhabited the valleys of the Sinjar range for centuries.

But more than two years later, as the Yazidis struggle for a political voice and an escape from the poverty they suffered during decades of oppression under President Saddam Hussein, tribesmen such as Jundu say they feel let down.

"We thought you guys were our saviors," Jundu told Lt. Col. Gregory Reilly as the two ate figs and sipped spiced coffee one recent morning.

"We still believe it. But we actually thought we'd be helped a little more," he said, his voice tinged with frustration. "We're kind of disappointed."

The rest of this story here, in the Washington Post.

Reading this story, especially the details about how much more primitive life is for these people, brought to mind how disappointed people in Jesus' time must have been not have their prophesied savior save them from religious persecution, political oppression, poverty, etc. In all fairness to them, I would have expected the most obvious "chains" to have been broken by my all powerful, all mighty savior, God. I may have missed the spiritual freedom that this savior was to provide as well had I lived in such conditions.

How often do we get disappointed in the circumstances we feel God should deliver us from?? For me, I'd rather not answer here in public, because I'm ashamed to admit it's often. When I have a chance such as now, to sit down and absorb the freedom that Christ offers compared to my circumstances I want changed, there is just no comparison. Of course, in the midst of those circumstances it is difficult to reconcile the purpose of Christ and the salvation He offered to my crisis at the moment.

At the end of this article, there's a little story about a man who asked if the army could just park a tank in front of his house forever, and it made me chuckle, out loud. Not because I think this man is silly, but I think to myself, that is exactly what I've asked God to do for me so many times in my life!! God, can you just park your tank of protection around me and keep me safe from all the bad things out there in the world??? Even if you refuse to change my circumstances or help me in any physical way, can you make sure nothing else bad happens to me??? And I laugh out loud again.

I'm in the middle of reading Erwin McManus' The Barbarian Way and I just read a bone chilling segment in which McManus states that God is not interested in our being "normal." I don't like that, but I understand that. God is concerned with so much more on our behalf, so much greater than what our minds can conceive. It would be perfect to be fully protected FROM the big, bad world, but God would rather protect us from ourselves sometimes, I think!! God is calling us to represent Him to the big, bad world, and we can't always do that with his big tank in front of our door!!

I feel deeply for these people in Iraq. I don't really understand what the solution would be for them. I find it intriguing that they believed that Jesus Christ accompanied the US Army into Iraq, that they know His name, that they want to be saved. It does sadden me that they are disappointed and I hope for them that they find Christ among some soldiers in a way they did not expect, but are willing to accept. I know He wants to save them, possibly not in the way they are expecting...