Expectation Is Fuel for Frustration - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

The 402 bus was over 50 minutes late. At the bus stop there gathered an increasingly large and frustrated group of commuters. The bus turned the corner, but it wasn't the 402. It was the 450. The doors opened, and this being Israel, everybody crowded onto the bus and demanded that the driver call the bus company and send them a 402 immediately, and they weren't leaving the bus until the 402 arrived. The driver said, "Okay, but I want everybody off the bus first." Reluctantly, they went down. The doors closed, and the bus driver stood up in his seat, took down the number 450, and replaced it with the number 402. Everyone smiled in disbelief. What a nice guy. He changed his route. Everyone got back onto the bus. They were so happy. Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of Israeli buses. Well, that's at least the way the story looked, but it wasn't quite like that. What really happened was that the original 402 bus broke down, and none of the drivers at the depot fancied taking over a bus and being greeted by a crowd of irate passengers. And then one of the bus drivers said, "Okay, I'll go." And so the 402 finally pulled out of the depot, and just before he arrived at the bus stop, the driver stopped, stood up in his seat, and changed the number of the bus from 402 to 450. And then he drove around the corner to the bus stop. The only thing that had changed was the number. [music] Very often in life we're waiting for the 402. We feel it's coming to me. I deserve it. When things go wrong, we burn with frustration in direct proportion to our sense of entitlement. The message is that everything is from Hashem. And when a person internalizes that, that every bus, every delay, every disappointment is sent precisely by divine [music] providence, Even a 450 is a gift.