Great Expectations - British Literary Tour 2015

We’ve come to the end of our England Countdown.  For many of us this wait has been at least ten months long – for some it’s been three years.  From the first time we realized that this was a possibility, our hearts was already gearing up in preparation-in expectation.  We are built for expectation.  God hard-wired us to imagine and desire and crave what is to come.  All the books of the Old Testament speak of the experience of expectation.  The centuries of God’s people living under the “law” and the promise that something, Someone, better was coming who would obliterate the heavy burden of a merit-based faith.  And sure enough, as promised, Jesus arrived and all the expectations that we had were met and exceeded in Him.  The New Testament gives us another expectation - the hope of Heaven. We’re told that this short period on earth is just preparation for a life that will exceed anything that we have experienced so far and the real challenge is not getting too comfortable this side of Heaven!  But in the meantime, we practice “expectation”.  We learn to look for and hope for and crave what is better, more noble.  These next nine days will bring our understanding of England, from the black and white of printed words on a page into the color of real life.  What we’ve struggled to learn in the context of a small classroom will now make perfect sense when we see it and experience it in person.  And all of this points to capture the real goal of my classes:  I want us to go from a sterile, academic, impersonal understanding of Christ to the vibrant and satisfying relationship that He longs to have with us.  And then together we practice the hope, expectation and reward of eternal life to come. 

So here we go!  As the plane’s nose lifts off the runaway, allow our expectations to soar as well!

May the next nine days exceed in reality what it has been only in expectation!

 

Here are most of our 41 travelers, ready for take off