Spent a Night in the Bed of My Truck, Learned about Expectations

I left Gainesville, GA to drive home to Kansas City, MO for Thanksgiving at 3:30 pm.

If you know your geography, you know Gainesville and Kansas City aren’t exactly neighbors (it’s like a 12-14 hour drive, depending on the lead in your foot). I planned to camp in the bed of my truck halfway between Georgia and Missouri, so I had 6 – 7 hours of driving that night. Winter was coming, which means the sun starts to set as soon as you finish lunch. As the clock passed 6 pm, it was pure darkness, and I still had four hours left to drive that night.

I started to dread the rest of my drive and my night of sleeping outside. The light ran away and the temperatures dropped, and so did my spirits. “Man…this really could be not much fun,” I thought to myself. I could only think of the dark, cold night that lay ahead of me. In the still chill of night, I would have to drive four more hours, find a place to camp, make my bed, and then somehow manage to stay warm and get some sleep. It was not looking promising.

“It’s going to be so cold. It’s going to be finding camp, it’s going to be cold getting in my bed, and it’s just going to get colder!” I drove on, wishing the night was over so I didn’t have to suffer in the frozen tundra of mid-Mississippi.

Can you see what was going on here? I was letting my imagination run wild with my expectations! I let my situation completely control what I was feeling and thinking. When I had left, I was gleefully excited with the idea of camping in a national forest. A mere three hours later and a few degrees colder, I was wrapped up in dread.

After stewing for two hours, the Lord knocked some sense into me. “Hold up,” I thought, “if I keep expecting it to be cold, then of course it will be cold! What if I expected it to be warm, comfortable, and peaceful? What if I thought more about the stillness of sleeping under the stars than the weather forecast? Yeah, forget the cold, I’m going to be excited for this!”

In that moment, I was able to change my expectations and perceptions and save myself from a night of angst, misery, and frustration.

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What if we learned to manage our expectations? What if we were able to clearly see situations and not be wrapped up in them? We live out more self-fulfilling prophecies than we realize. We act upon what we believe to be true.

What are you believing or expecting about tomorrow? What do you believe or expect in your family, co-workers, or church? What expectations have you been constructing about that person, that project, or that meeting?

We act upon what we believe to be true. Be wary about what you think will be true.