It's been one year since our first worship service - what blessings God has given us!  That day was a high point of happiness for me as we began a journey that has brought us here today.

          Recently a singer received a country music award and announced, "This is the happiest day of my life!"  What's been your happiest day?  Was it your wedding day, the birth of a child or winning a grand prize?  Was it attending a fantastic spiritual retreat, or being praised by your fellow workers?  Did your happiest day come because you did something really good, or even perhaps because someone forgave you an old debt?

          Such events can be mountain top experiences for us, like the first time you stood atop Pike's Peak and all the world seemed below you, or the first time you really knew you were in love.  We want those times to last forever, but we know they won't.

          The transfiguration of Jesus was a pivotal point in His life, and it was also a mountain top experience for His disciples.  He had finished His work as a Rabbi and was beginning His march to Jerusalem.  There he would suffer, die and rise again for the sins of the whole world.  And here at His transfiguration, like at His baptism, Jesus was once again revealed to be the Son of God.

          He had invited His inner circle of friends, Peter, James and John, to a high mountain.  Israeli guides today will tell you it was at Mt. Tabor, some 20 miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee, a hill that juts sharply into the sky a thousand feet above the plain.  Wherever the hill was, something amazing happened to Jesus.  His appearance became dazzling white, so bright they could hardly look at Him.  Incredibly, they saw Moses and Elijah with Him.  And the voice of God spoke from heaven, "This is my Son whom I love;  listen to Him!"

          This was probably the high point in life for those three men.  Not even the miracles they'd seen prepared them for this.  Not even Lazarus raised from the dead was so amazing.  James and John, those "Sons of Thunder," were speechless.  Only Peter babbled something about building tents there so they could stay there.  It was truly an unforgettable moment.

          But as quickly as it happened, so quickly it ended.  Most of life's great experiences are like that, so wonderful they can't be explained, and over with so quickly.  We aren't expecting them, but they're dynamite when the come.  We would love to stay up there on the mountain top, but we know we can't, because we live down here on the plain, here in the ordinary life of work and tedium and disappointment, far away from the rarified air of the mountain top.

          Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this story, and I sense a lot of disappointment as I read it.  The disciples wanted to stay there, to make it last as long as possible, but knew they couldn't.  It lasted only moments, but stayed with them a lifetime.

          Down here on the plain, the most ordinary things can become extra-ordinary.  About 10 years ago I became allergic to milk products and no longer can enjoy a cold glass of chocolate milk or ice cream.  I can't even eat sherbet without problems.  I tried all the substitutes and found them really bad, and so resigned myself to life without ice cream.  But a few weeks ago I "discovered" the wonders of sorbet - frozen crushed fruit - peach and strawberry - my favorites!  It's so good I eat it most every night.  It's so wonderful I had to get some while writing this sermon.

          But too much of anything good becomes boring.  Too much sorbet becomes ordinary.  Steak every day becomes tasteless.  The best things in life come in short moments.  Life's joys quickly turn to disappointment.  We humans are so easily bored.

          But how do you deal with the real disappointments of life -- losing your job, receiving a bill from the IRS, or having your child kicked out of school?  How do you deal with the big ones - being served divorce papers?  Medical tests that show cancer?  Someone you love dies?

          Where do you go when life reverses itself and you're cast deep into the shadows of the valley?  There are those small disappointments like a basement full of water because the water heater leaked.  But what do you do when the bottom of life falls out completely?

          A Christian couple I know have three sons and they raised all three in very much the same way.  They loved them and were godly examples.  They joined them in church activities, taught them to pray, took wonderful family vacations, and gave them many of the good things in life.

          Yet their children were a disappointment.  The oldest son had a child out of wedlock, got married and quickly divorced, and then disappeared to California.  The youngest got into drugs, raided a family bank account and is now living an immoral life.  The middle son stayed close to them and to God, but he married poorly, and it's doubtful his marriage will last.  In such a model family, why should children bring them such disappointment?  Those parents have asked themselves this question a hundred times.

          Disappointment comes when your plans or hopes fail.  You work and work towards a special goal and it alludes you.  You do your job right, and something or someone derails your plans, or else you fail yourself.  How do we deal with disappointment?  All of us feel its sting some time in life.  It's part of who we are, frail and sinful people in need of God's mercy.

          Disappointment comes mostly because of people.  We trust someone and they betray us.  We count on them and they let us down.  Jesus counted on His disciples, but they abandoned Him in His hour of greatest need.  Even Peter, His most trusted friend, lied that he knew Him.  It's like the song in the musical "Paint Your Wagon," that says, "Only people can make you cry."

          But consider for a moment St. Paul who knew all about disappointment.  He was hated, beaten and imprisoned for speaking of Jesus, yet He was not crushed.  He felt the sting of people who failed him, yet he knew God would not fail him.  He once wrote, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;  perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned;  struck down, but not destroyed." (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)   How could he say this?  What did he know that we don't?

          Here's a way to deal with disappointment.  It's called the "Three R's" of life:  Remember, Repent, Rejoice.  Briefly - Remember God's blessings, Repent of your sins, and Rejoice in what you have.  Let's look at each one carefully:

          First, REMEMBER your blessings.  No matter how bad things seem, you probably don't have it as bad as you think.  Remember the good in your life.  And remember God's love for you.  He's promised, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)   And again, "Come to me, you who are tired and weary, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)   And again, "In all things God works for the good of those who love him." (Romans 8:28)   God's promises give us back lost hope.  Remember, God loves you.  Remember He's there beside you in good and bad times.  He will not abandon you.  Remember how good He has already been to you.  You are His child!

          Second, REPENT of your sins.  Most all our problems start with pride and unfaith.  We accept Christ and then life should all go well.  We believe bad things shouldn't happen to us.  But what makes us exempt from troubles?  Just because we're Christian, should God make our life perfect?  Some of the finest Christians had great troubles.  Repent of your expectations for a perfect life.  Ask God for faith to handle your burdens.  Instead of a lighter load, pray for a stronger back.

          And don't forget the third "R" - REJOICE!  Rejoice in what you have, not mope about what you lack.  Rejoice in your Savior who loves you!  Rejoice that you have people to love and people who love you.  Rejoice that your name is written in the book of life.

          REMEMBER - REPENT - REJOICE - the "Three R's" of Christian life.  They'll bring you through a host of life's disappointments.

          Mike Christian was a poor young man from Alabama who enlisted in the Navy and later became a pilot.  In 1967 he was shot down over Viet Nam.  Captivity was terrible, but now and then prisoners got packages from home with food and items of clothing.  Mike made a bamboo needle, pieced together an American flag and sewed it inside his shirt.  Every afternoon he and his fellow prisoners would hang the flag-shirt inside out and pledge their allegiance to the flag.

          One day the Vietnamese searched the cells and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag and removed it.  That evening they hauled him out and beat him severely for several hours, in view of the other prisoners.  When they threw him back in the cell, his face was so swollen he could barely see.  His fellow prisoners cleaned him up as best they could with dry cloth and no water there on that cold cement floor with only bare lightbulbs overhead, lights they never turned off.

          After they'd cleaned Mike up and some time had passed, one of the prisoners looked in the corner of the room.  And there sitting beneath a dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth and his bamboo needle, Mike Christian was sewing another flag.  With bruised and swollen hands and barely able to see, he was already sewing another flag.  He could have let his disappointment crush him, but instead, he was sewing another flag.

          What beating has life given you?  What disappointment has nearly crushed you?  What has happened to make you want to run away or give up?  Whatever your disappointment, trust in God and sew another flag.  When you feel your worst, sew another flag.  Remember, Repent, and Rejoice, and sew another flag.

          And remember these wonderful words of St. Paul:  "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39)   Amen!

Copyright © 2000 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.