The Unexpected

Expect nothing but for God to love you.

I’ve written that phrase many times over the past several months on this blog, and I have yet to address what that really means. Yes, I have written about many instances where God loved me when I stopped trying to control my life, but those were just the tip of the iceberg. They were the best stories, not the only stories.

The truth is, we’re not very good at letting God love us in unexpected ways.

When we let go, we are forced to accept the unknown. Many of us say that we do not like the unknown, and numerous professionals developed techniques to deal with the unknown. We plan things, and we leave space as best we can.

As scientists, we make null and alternative hypotheses. We plan our experiments based on all of the results we can expect. We become comfortable with the possibility of everything going completely wrong and everything going completely right.

And yet…

The results we get are often completely unexpected, unexplained by any of our rationalized prepared results, and unpublishable in its current form.

There is nothing more unsettling than the unexpected.

This is true for scientists and non-scientists alike. We don’t have tools to prepare for the unexpected, and we often have to change our lives to fit the unexpected. And unlike results which refute our original hypothesis, there is not an easy way to proceed from the unexpected. We have to stop, reevaluate our situation, and change direction.

When we let go of our lives and let God take control, we can prepare for Him to tell us not to do something with our lives, not to heal someone we love, not to help us find our career, not to speak to us…

But we can’t prepare for Him to do something completely unexpected.

And because God loves the unexpected, we can only expect the unexpected.

The thing is…the unexpected is how God loves us. Even the seemingly negative moments of our lives are graces. God loves surprises, and He wants to give us lives far greater than we could ever image. Despite the negative or the unexpected moments of our lives, His ultimate goal is for us to be in Heaven where He may love us forever and we may love Him forever.

So if God loves us in the unexpected, then why are we so afraid to accept it?

I think it’s because we believe we don’t deserve these gifts. It’s true; we don’t deserve all the love God gives us. However, that is not how God sees it. God loves us as we are because He made us. Just as a child who worked for weeks on a project loves that project despite their grade in the end, so too does God love us without a care of our opinion, nor the opinions of others.

We do not expect unconditional love anymore. We do not expect miracles anymore.

We expect failure, concrete facts, and selfishness.

Such expectations limit God’s ability to love us. We expect Him to act like a normal human being. Even though Jesus is human, He is also God. As a result, Jesus’ love does not look like our love, nor does it look like the love of anyone we know. It is unconditional, unfailing, unexplainable, and selfless.

I think we live our lives a lot like a recently rescued dog. We were abused by our past selves, by our inner dialogue with the devil, and by the world at large. Then we are taken in by a loving Father, one who sees our cuts and bruises yet loves us all the more. He tends our brokenness and gives us food to eat.

Then, He hands us as a gift: a chew toy.

No one gave us a gift before, so we are confused. We did nothing to deserve the gift. All we did was come home with Him. We have nothing to give in return except for what little affection we have left in our hearts.

We do not want to take the chew toy.

We refuse to take the toy, even though we know that it would make us happy. The Father holds the toy out to us again and again. He squeaks it. He does all He can, and then He walks away to let us figure out the toy for ourselves.

Even if we are slow to accept the gift, the Father never takes it away.

What would have happened if we just accepted the unexpected gifts we convinced ourselves we did not deserve? Would God the Father see our acceptance as selfish or prideful? Would He want us to regret accepting our gifts?

Absolutely not.

No new dog owner is upset when their new dog plays with their new toys. They smile and laugh as they watch their four-legged friend play and bark and hide their toys. They buy their pup new toys to continue playing with. They are so happy to see their dog happy.

God is so happy to see us accept our gifts.

But what about when the dog breaks their new toy as most dogs do?

Is the owner mad?

I think this is why so many of us fear the unexpected. We fear that if we accept this gift that we will fail, that we will fall flat on our face, that we will misinterpret what the gift was supposed to mean. We think that because we were unworthy of the gift before that we will never be worthy of such a gift. We live in fear of failure.

And you know what?

You are going to fail.

Just as nearly every dog destroys their toys, so too will we make mistakes. We will neglect our gifts, hide from our hope, and ignore the unexpected love we are given. We will stop accepting the newness of life we received and attempt to go back to how our lives were before God gave us the incredible gift we never deserved but loved more than we could ever imagine.

But God does not take away our gifts.

I remember when my family owned a black lab named Toby. Toby had a stuffed duck named Mr. Mallard. He loved that duck, but he was too rough to keep Mr. Mallard safe. In anticipation of Mr. Mallard’s demise, we bought more stuffed ducks for Toby to play with. He would tear apart the duck and look up at us sadly. Toby could not fix the duck.

Slowly, we would take the old duck away and replace it with a fixed Mr. Mallard.

Brand new.

God gives us these gifts because He loves us. Even if we make a mistake, He will still give us gifts. All we have to do is look up at our Father who loves us and wait. Sometimes the gift does not look the exact same, but oftentimes it is the exact same gift. God does not take our gifts. He helps us learn to love them as He loves us.

Do not be afraid of the unexpected.

Accept the gifts.

And if you have failed once, do not be afraid to ask God for a second chance. Do not be afraid to ask Him to teach you how to love your gifts. Do not be afraid to ask Him how to live your life to the fullest.

Do not be afraid to be bold with Our Father.

There is nothing we can do that would surprise Him. That’s His job: to surprise us by just how much He loves us.