Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Surprise (Life Form.)

"Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect...



...For instance, when you have grasped that the earth and the other planets all go round the sun, you would naturally expect that all the planets we made to match-- all at equal distances from each other, say, or distances that regularly increased, or all the same size, or else getting bigger or smaller as you go further from the sun. In fact, you find no rhyme or reason (that we can see) about either the sizes or the distances; and some of them have one moon, one has four, one has two, some have none, and one has a ring."
-- C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity

I've realized that sometimes I expect God to be very predictable. 
Not on purpose. In fact, I often pray for new things... for things that would surprise me and take me out of my comfort zone or any place I've been before in my walk with the Lord. 

But the other day I was thinking and I started comparing a situation in my life to a similar situation in a friend's. In the back of my mind, I was holding onto this idea that if what was going on in my life looked different than how He had worked in theirs... mine couldn't be legitimate.

I felt like what God's work in my life needed to follow some kind of pattern. The words He had spoken to me and the steps I was about to take needed to look more like what I had already seen work in somebody else's life. I thought like this for a little while...

Then I heard this little whisper, "You're not allowing any room for me to surprise you."
That's where I said, "Oh."

I'm really glad that God doesn't limit himself by making my life look just like someone else's. 
I feel like God's heart is all over doing things that are new.. and fresh.. things that catch us off guard.

Sometimes a person will say something so kind or so insightful that it just stops you.  The busyness of life kind of fades away as you look at them and think about the depth of what was just spoken to you. It's so special and you treasure their words because they were meant just for you. I think God does the same thing. The way he's bringing together the plans he has for you and for me and the calling on my life.. and on your life... it's all so personal. So specialized and designed to capture our hearts in the way God knows they will be best captured. To remind us He knows us and He's our very best friend. It's very sweet of Him. 

So God, come in and dust old expectations and ideas of "how it should be" off of me. 

Thank you for surprising me.

3 comments:

  1. :}
    Very nice and encouraging
    mom

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  2. loved it :) If I've learned one thing (or think I've learned one thing) about the Holy Spirit, it's that he is a spirit of creativity.



    which is great for my short-attention-span-spirit.

    (how about that for alliteration)

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awesome. Surprises are good. =]

    As are quiet reminders.

    ReplyDelete