Tue, 5 Feb 2008 04:46:03


Has anyone ever disappointed you? How did you feel? Well,I have been through this disappointment thing several times already.Every time I think that I have mastered the art and science of disappointment,Lo and behold, another one pops up,sometimes with devastating effects.

See, over the years,many have let me down. Included in the list but not limited have been,

• Those that I considered and treated as my intimate friends. They let me down or betrayed me at the point when I really needed them, thus tempting me to question the rationale behind friendship.

• Leaders that I knew or thought I knew were going to make great changes for the benefit of God's children. However, as soon as they ascended into power, they forgot where they had come from thus make life for their subjects even worse.

• People whose success I greatly contributed to. After they achieved their goal, they dropped me and picked up new friends. The only time I have seen them come back was when they needed more help.

Yesterday,  I suffered yet another disappointment which sadly reminded me all the previous ones. The interesting thing about yesterday's disappointment is that it was not by a fellow human being but strangely by a vacuum cleaner. Let me explain.

To make our cleaning hobby more enjoyable for my boss and I, self-proclaimed experts in cleaning with an emphasize in vacuuming,my boss bought a small but very useful shark vacuum cleaner that I nicknamed "my friend."

From the day go,I knew that this type of vacuum cleaner was unique in more ways than one:

1. It was lighter than the other one in the store.
2. It didn't make too much noise.
3. It did not disrupt customers who come to the store while on the phone.

Every single morning, my boss and I took turns in using the little friend who by all means made our work enjoyable. However, yesterday, I found out that what I had thought to be a unique vacuum cleaner was after all the same like all others, if not worse.

Now that I think about it, I blame myself for counting on a vacuum cleaner that was ironically put together by fellow human beings, some of whom have disappointed me over the years.

At the end, I decided to take care of this disappointment game once and for all by turning up my eyes upon Jesus, who alone has never and will never disappoint me. How about you my friend?

Just a thought.

        - Pr C. Absalom N. Birai