Dealing With Disappointment!
"For Demas has forsaken me,
having loved this present world,
and has departed for Thessalonica."
2 Timothy 4: 10
If someone you barely know fails to follow through on a
commitment, it’s disappointing. But when someone you
know intimately fails in the same way, it’s hurtful.
There's a correlation between intimacy and hurt:
The closer we are to a person, the more it hurts
when they disappoint us.
That correlation was present when a man named Demas deserted the
apostle Paul when the latter was under house arrest in Rome. Demas
and Paul had a history, a relationship. In two of the epistles written by
Paul from Rome—Colossians and Philemon—the apostle
mentioned
Demas as being with him in his confinement.
In Colossians 4:14, Paul mentions Demas in the same breath as
Luke. In Philemon 1:23-24, Demas is one of five fellow
believers
mentioned by Paul as being with him. But during Paul’s second
and final imprisonment in Rome, Demas deserted him (2 Timothy
4:10). We don’t know why, only that he “loved this present world.”.
When we're disappointed by others,
we must turn to the One who will never
leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
"There are no disappointments
to those whose wills are buried
in the will of God."
Frederick W. Faber
