Great Expectations

Perry Stephens is a great young violinist.  In fact, he’s hopeful of a place in the National Children’s Orchestra.  But it wasn’t always so.  He practised faithfully, and had obvious talent but, despite his abilities, he showed no great enthusiasm for his weekly lessons, which took place during the school lunch hour, with a visiting teacher.  When the first term’s report arrived, his father read “Perry’s attention to this subject bears no relation to what I am convinced he can do – if only he would apply himself.”  He knew the time had come to step in.

Faced with the report, Perry said quite simply, “Yes, I like playing, but I’ve got such a useless teacher.”  Knowing the teacher’s excellent reputation, his father was surprised by this comment, and asked for more detail.  “It’s true,” said Perry, “even the other teachers think so.  They say ‘here’s Perry’s pathetic music teacher.’”  Light dawned and, suppressing a smile, his father took Perry aside with a large dictionary.  Once Perry understood that ‘peripatetic’ was a state of employment, and had nothing to do with the teacher’s ability, there was no holding him back.

How often do we make the mistake of setting our sights too low?  How often do we aim for a target far lower than we’re capable of?  The same short-sightedness can be observed in our prayers.  We often assume that our loving Heavenly Father is unwilling to grant what we want, because of our sinfulness.  We fail to take account of our Salvation, won by Jesus on the Cross.  That is an affront to the love that God has for us, but even worse, we insult His power when we under-estimate what He is able to give us.  These are mistakes that can be based on the strength of the most flimsy and unreliable evidence.  Remember that Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matt. 7:7-8).

Perry was fine once he had confidence in his teacher.  We’ll be fine too, if we can only find the confidence in God's love.  Once we do, we can be totally open and honest in our prayers.  We can tell our Lord absolutely everything: our hopes, our fears, our most intimate and secret desires.  And we can be certain that our confidences are secure, and that our prayers will be answered.