Expectations Set for Success with Aligned Anticipation
Encode the words to decode the message one word at a time
Anticipation and expectation
The letter came!
I was in the car, parked in the garage. Finally home after picking up the mail, with great expectation I opened the letter ready to launch into the details of the next step. Instead, rejection jumped off the page in the first paragraph.
No fortune cookie encoding of the words, “A plan you have been working on for a long time is beginning to take shape.” Decode the message.
Success or failure does not depend upon your perception. No longer is there a plan for the future that you had in mind.
As I lay dying
The words deflated my entire body. I felt physically exhausted, emotionally paralyzed, mentally drained, and spiritually disappointed. My prayers, my expectations, my hopes, my efforts, my dreams were gone. I slowly exited the car and decided to take a walk. I found a recliner by a lake and rested there.
Then words that I had memorized as a teenager flooded back into my mind.
What happened next has changed the subsequent three decades of my life. As I closed my eyes and dealt with the unexpected outcome, I recited these words from Proverbs 3:5–6:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Instead of stopping with one recitation, I started something new for me. I said it again and again with one major change. Each time I would emphasize a word. By the end, having repeated those two verses 27 times — for the 27 words, I was at peace!
[At the time I only repeated these verses 27 times, emphasizing the next word each time. Here and now, I add my decoding (by definitions and grammatical construction of the parts of speech) to reinforce these concepts in context.]
For example, “TRUST in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
Trust = what I do; an imperative; a command; action verb
“Trust IN the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
in = where I put my trust; preposition showing relationship
“Trust in THE LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
the = specific, not a general article; adjective describing a noun
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
LORD = Ruler of the Universe; God plans the best for me; proper noun
“Trust in the LORD WITH all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
with = how to trust; preposition connecting LORD and my heart
“Trust in the LORD with ALL your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
all = completely everything; nothing left out; adjective describing heart
“Trust in the LORD with all YOUR heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
your = individually mine, not someone else’s; personal possessive pronoun
“Trust in the LORD with all your HEART, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
heart = core of my being; desires; wants; passions; source; noun
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, AND lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
and = connecting two clauses to trust and to lean; conjunction
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and LEAN not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
lean = rest against; synonym for trust to uphold you; action verb
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean NOT on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
not = no; negative; avoid; adverb describing the verb lean
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not ON your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
on = position showing dependence; preposition revealing relationship
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on YOUR own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
your = belonging to me; personal pronoun used as an adjective
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your OWN understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
own = emphasizing this is not someone else’s theory; descriptive adjective
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own UNDERSTANDING; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
understanding = clearly defining comprehension to apply a principle; noun
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; IN all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
in = not outside appearance; preposition that shows relationship to behavior
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in ALL your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
all = all means all, not some; complete; adjective describing the word ways
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all YOUR ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
your = belonging to me to alert me to be accountable; personal pronoun
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your WAYS acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
ways = behavior; lifestyle reflected by choices; paths; at the core; heart; noun
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways ACKNOWLEDGE Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
acknowledge = know in relationship with; become aware of; action verb
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge HIM, and He shall direct your paths.”
Him = synonym for God; who to acknowledge; masculine, personal pronoun
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, AND He shall direct your paths.”
and = also, in addition; connecting ideas; conjunction
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and HE shall direct your paths.”
He = God, the Creator, who is omniscient seeing everything; pronoun
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He SHALL direct your paths.”
shall = synonym for will; purposeful and intentional; helping verb
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall DIRECT your paths.”
direct = lead; following God’s will; action verb
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct YOUR paths.”
your = belongs to me; God has a plan for my life; personal possessive pronoun
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your PATHS.”
paths = the direction I am going; a place following a trajectory; noun
Unexpected opportunities and unanticipated connections
There’s something about the encoding of God’s Word and the decoding of His message that transforms me into a spiritual being in a human body with a calling to do God’s will. Adding to what Julia Kathryn wrote about Trusting the Lord with all my heart a few days ago, I am chosen and choose to follow His path, not my own.
That simple strategy required only a few minutes. Yet, by the end of investing time in those 27 repetitions, I reinforced my memory, strengthened the connections in my brain, changed the perspective about His path for me, and was at peace. “Thy will be done,” not my will be done. My heart, my mind, my emotions, my body were ok with the unanticipated response of what I received and perceived as success.
Surprised by joy by the end of processing and resting there, I literally felt a win-win acceptance of what is reality. God closed doors that I see, in retrospect, would have led to more problems. He continues to open doors by closing my dim-lit expectations of what I wanted. I find that surrender is the only way through — by the power of His Holy Spirit — to do His will and follow the path He directs.
The crossroads of decisions made by God Almighty who sees the future satisfies me intensely, not matter what comes. No longer is there anxiety in not getting what I want. I leave the driving to Him and I rest along the way.
Start small.
Go slow.
Go deep.
Encode for success by analyzing each word in the present. Decode the message to determine the future.
Repeat. Repeat. REPEAT.