God, Surprise Me, Today

Everyone likes surprises, right? Do you agree? What if I follow that question with making sure you know I am talking about good surprises, does it change your answer? I think the answer would mostly be “yes.” I am one who likes to have positive surprises. What we know as surprise is usually in the verb form, some type of action. Merriam-Webster defines the word in this context as “to strike with wonder or amazement especially because unexpected.” To find something unexpected coming your way should bring a smile to your face; I know it does mine. About six years ago I was praying and asked God to surprise me. To this day He has not stopped doing surprising me. I am not going to lie by saying that each day I notice the surprises or are they mountain-top experiences. However, it has caused me to look at each day with a different perspective and with wonder of what God is going to do in my life that day, who He is going to bring to me or allow me to cross paths with during any given day. It is quite exhilarating. Have you ever tried to scare someone, even if they knew where you were hiding? Like when you are playing with a young child and they know where you are hiding and they sneak up just to be surprised. They look forward to that feeling because they know it is going to make them laugh. That is somewhat the way I feel about my expectation to God’s surprises. A couple of weeks ago I went into it thinking that it was going to be a semi-normal week. I knew I had a meeting out of town on Monday and probably traveling on Wednesday for a surgery. Other than that, the week was going to pretty much be as normal. God had some other plans for me. Surprise number one came about on Valentine’s Day. I have been sending the occasional text message to several local college students to try to encourage them or see how their life was going. At best, most of the time I receive a “thank you.” This was a day which I received a reply that said something like “you don’t know how much I needed to hear that.” Wow, was I surprised! The message was intended to reach out, but didn’t know it would actually accomplish its goal in receiving a response. That led to having an exchange of several texts to counsel a soul that was broken inside, needing a listening ear. You just never know when these surprises will come your way. Surprise number two came about a couple of days later. As my week had been busy with meetings, traveling, and work, then I received a call from a local mortician. He called to ask me if I would perform a funeral for someone who didn’t have a minister to do their mother’s funeral. My plans for the week didn’t include this, but God had other plans. Since moving to this area, in just over three years, I have performed seven funerals. I know that isn’t a lot for some ministers, but for me, coming from a small congregation that is a lot. Oddly enough, only one was from our congregation, and that person lived in a nursing home. Five of the other six have been people I did not have the pleasure of meeting. Doing funerals allows me a chance to be involved in peoples’ lives that is unlike other times in one’s life. Because of that, in a non-morbid way, I do enjoy having these opportunities to minister to people. In both of these situations, I could have passed on the opportunity. Looking back I could not imagine what I would have missed out on if I would have passed on the opportunities. Think about the many opportunities that have come about in your life in which you decided to pass up. Worse yet, the opportunities that did come about in the last week which you did pass up on them even if you didn’t realize these opportunities came your way. I want to challenge you to keep your eyes wide open to the many God-opportunities that come your way. Then, be ready to take advantage of them for the chance to make an influence for Him. Start asking “God, surprise me, today” then look out for the surprises to come to you and come often!