To be a Cleveland sports fan is to, in many ways, be familiar with disappointment, with lost hope. Though moments of great joy & celebration do occur, the story of being a Cleveland sports fan is all too often a story of having hope increased that this might be the one, that this might be the year, only to have that hope dashed before the game or the year’s end.

  But even if we aren’t a Cleveland sports fan, or even a sports fan at all, maybe we’ve never watched a game & have no desire ever to. But even if it’s not about the agony of defeat in sports, there are many times in every one of our lives where we find ourselves faced with disappointment. Something doesn’t go the way that we hoped it would, something we try isn’t successful & instead is filled with mistakes, rather than success we are met with failure, we expect something from another human being & they let us down. Regardless of our views or our interest in sports, none of us can escape disappointment in our lives.

  The disciples on the road to Emmaus, they thought that Jesus was the one, they had hoped that He was the Messiah. And as they watched Him die a very public, very humiliating death, they began to give into disappointment & lose hope. We find them today giving up, walking away from it all. Walking away, that is, until the risen Lord (though they don’t recognize Him at first) starts walking with them. In a sense, their walk with Him becomes a walk of prayer until their eyes are opened in the breaking of the bread.

  It’s easy for us to lose our way, it’s easy for us to be tempted to give into despair, to lose hope. It’s easy to be tempted to surrender & to give up when the road becomes difficult. But the story of the road to Emmaus calls us to remember that, even in the face of life’s most challenging disappointments. we are called to have faith, to have & to hold on to hope, in our disappointment & discouragement, rather than running away, rather than giving up, walk with Jesus in prayer. Walk with him, like these disciples did, even when it’s tempting to go the other way. Bring the disappointment to Him, spend time with the Scriptures, conversing with God in prayer. The Easter story isn’t simply a story that Jesus rose once, some thousands of years ago, but that the risen Lord continues to walk with us today. Like the disciples today, let’s bring the disappointments of our lives to Him & allow Him to walk with us & transform disappointment into hope.