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A book review: Part Three -Dealing with Disappointment by John Hindley


This is the concluding part of a book review on the book, “Dealing with Disappointment” by John Hindley. 

Life is, in fact, a disappointment, and has been starting from when sin entered the world. It re-created what God created which was a perfect world that is fully connected to God through worship and obedience.

The unity was broken by sin and now we gravitate more towards earthly things rather than God himself. The things of this world only give us temporary comforts; hence most people are never fully satisfied. This couldn't be further from the gift that Christ wants to give us, which is an eternal life that fills us up with love, comfort and purpose enduring all seasons of life.

The answer to life’s disappointment is God as He is love, love that endures all when nothing else will. Being loving and being loved won’t stop the disappointments but it means we don’t have to escape, as discussed in the previous post.

Perhaps, it might stop us from buying stuff that we don’t need or can’t comfortably afford and existing in a fantasy rather than living reality. Following the Lord Jesus Christ gives a perspective that shrinks the disappointments so that we don’t necessarily have to live in that space.  Instead, we can accept the disappointments and move on from them.

Life on this earth is hard, people let us down and we don’t live in Eden. Sin is in all of our nature - that’s why we all need God; sin is also common and real. It’s shocking but not surprising.

When we forget that we ourselves are sinful, we over-react in disappointment at other people's sin, anger, withdrawal or isolation etc. Let your disappointments fuel your prayers and be led by faith.

Dissatisfaction can be a blessing, as it can lead you to search for and find someone more satisfying – my own story echoes this truth.  There’s got to be more to life than this and I am here to say, yes there is and I hope you find it for yourself!

In our disappointments also lies our hope in the Light of the world. He is the true meaning of life, who shines light into the darkness of this world because He is perfect.  We are imperfect but only made perfect through Him.

Perhaps one must think, am I looking for healing in all the wrong places for my life disappointments because failure tells me, there has to be more than this. 


I close with the following thought that encompasses all three parts of my book review: 

Disappointments are very much part of the makeup of life and there is nothing that we can do about them. However, our response is very much in our control if we chose to turn to God with our disappointments. 
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