The greatest disappointment of my life thus far is a long-ish story, but in a nutshell, I got fired from a ministry last summer because the president of the ministry...well it's a long story. One of the reasons was because I saw some issues with some things, and as a sister in Christ I went to her to talk with her about them. She took it as an attack, and I was fired a week later. When she fired me, she just ripped into me for 20 minutes about how horrible I am, basically. As a person. Not as a worker. Not a good thing to hear that from an older Christian woman I loved and respected, and not a good thing to happen to someone who already struggled with their value.
Like I said, though, that's the nutshell version. It's more the nutshell version of the nutshell verison, because it goes much deeper and more extended than that.
This was a ministry that I had been connected to, in heart and spirit, for 2 years. Even before those 2 years, other things had been happening in my life that was also connected to it.
I know it sounds so vague and confusing. The whole story would take way more than anyone would care to read. But, it was a huge disappointment. To have this 2+ year buildup to something that got pulled out from under me in an extremely painful way less than 4.5 months in.
It is still taking me time to heal. But...God definitely taught me (and is teaching me) things throughout it all, and I can already see some good from it.
Sometimes, years down the road, you can look back and say "Oooh, so that's what that was for." It's hard to think of that when you're going through it. Just keep your eyes on God and be willing to open your heart to what He may want to show you through the disappointments.
When Lazarus died, the people wondered why He hadn't come earlier; He just took His time. But, they had never seen a resurrection before. This was something new He wanted to show them, and He wouldn't have been able to had His timing been different. I read in a great study that the Lord does this with us sometimes: We go through things to learn new things about Him that we didn't know before and otherwise wouldn't have known.
ETA: My "nutshell post" turned out to be longer than I thought. Whoops.