i hate disapointing people!

I hate it when I cannot meet every need people ask of me.

Recently I have gotten a number of emails from people who have been frustrated about my slow response time. Right now there are hundreds of emails that i should be responding to. As it is, I often respond to more than a hundred a day. That is hours and hours of work.

A few of my Pastor-friends have started to use 'ghost-writers' to get them all answered. I found that out when I sent a personal cry for help to a pastor who I had often emailed in the past when I needed help. I got back a response that seemed out of character for him, and later when I asked him about it, he seemed even more out of touch.

After inquiring about it, I discovered that a really kind and helpful volunteer had read and responded to my email for him.

I admit I felt a little ripped off. And exposed.

A frustrated emailer recently suggested that I should use an auto-responder to tell people that I was not keeping up, thus helping them manage their expectations. Or, someone suggested, I should change email addresses, and only give the new one to people who I want to hear from.

These solutions don't seem good to me.

But here's the thing. Once people come to expect a certain thing, no one wants to no longer get what they have come to expect. They get angry.

I wonder if that is ultimately why they crucified Jesus. They had come to expect that He would always slip through the crowd when they tried to kill him, and that he would explain Himself so well that no one could ever actually talk him into a corner. I wonder if they actually expected more great miracles, especially after marching him into Jerusalem as their new King one week before! I wonder if, when they didn't get what they thought they should get from Him, that they got angry that He wouldn't give it, and decided to take their revenge on Him instead?