Surprise!

There are days when every one of us Christian or nonchristian spend time wondering what God was thinking when this happened… or that happened… but for me… today was not one of those days.

I find that today I’m contemplating the concept of surprise. Like… SURPRISE! I love good surprises… random gifts…presents…seeing people you haven’t seen in a long time…those are all good things and I’ll take those on any given day! What about bad surprises… you know the kind that feels like you are receiving a stiff kick to the face while having a blind fold on. I hate those…especially when it’s dealing with me personally. I still hate it when it more involves other people but…hmm…surprises.

A few examples…

My first ministry experience was a surprise. I was a 4 month old Christian… 16 years old. I was in drama class and I asked to go use the restroom but when I walked into the restroom I heard a girl crying violently. She was a freshman, a cheer leader, very well known, cream of the crop of her class, kind but liked to go party. She always wore baggy clothes but no one really knew why. People liked her… she was “cool”. She was 14 years old and weeping in a bathroom stall. My mind wanted to disregard it for that moment but I couldn’t I got her attention and entered her stall...and SURPRISE! The only thing I heard her saying fanning through her tears was… “Pleeeeeaaaaasssseeee don’t tell….don’t tell anyone…please!” I quickly deciphered from the fluid on the floor, her posture and many other things that this 14 year old girl was in labor. SURPRISE! (Looking back, how can people not have realized that…who knows…but they didn’t!) I didn’t have to go to the bathroom anymore. I told her that I was going to go get the counselor…. She pleaded and begged me not to… but sometimes…things are bigger than we are…and this was way bigger than my 16 year old self in that moment! I went to the counselors office where she looked frantic and hip deep in paperwork. I said, Mrs. #@$%#$ you need to come with me right now. (I was very calm…until she said…not now.) Then I grabbed her hand, gave her “the look” and said “RIGHT NOW”. I took her to the bathroom and she started to panic. I would have been better off on my own… was my first thought. Then she called an ambulance and they were much better at taking it from there. The 14 year old had a beautiful baby girl. Her parents…got a SURPRISE! And a life change all in a moments notice. But for me in that moment…I think that God brought me out of that classroom to be the one that found her. Later that night, I drove to the hospital. Where I met her and her mother. Her mother appearing shocked and disgusted and “needed some air”…(no kidding, I can’t imagine!). But that left me there with this 14 year old mom and her new baby. None of her friends showed up they were too embarrassed by her. The first time I officially met her was in the bathroom earlier that day. But God wasn’t surprised. He knew…and he sent me. That night, she got an authentic gospel presentation from a 4 month old baby Believer and decided to start owning up to her decisions and actions.

Before church one day, a set of parents stopped me in the parking lot within this past year. I asked her how she was doing and she said, “fine.” I said, “no really, how are you doing.” Sometimes…you just know there’s something else going on. She began to go through her children’s lives. Her son just turned 10 a couple weeks ago and he was doing good in school. Her oldest daughter is kind but hitting a phase where she’s just annoyed by her parents. And she said, her middle daughter just turned 16 the day before. She said, “you know what she did for her 16th birthday?” I said, “what thinking she did something miniscule and random.” She said, “She sat us all down on the couch as a family and told us that she was pregnant with the baby of a 20 year old guy that she’d been dating for a month.” (SURPRISE!) Then tears began to stream down her face as she started to say, “I don’t know what we’re going to do.” There were a million thoughts parading through her head in that moment. Over the next few months, I watched the 16 year old girl attempt to own up to her actions…she stood tall and didn’t quit church or school. (not trying to justify her actions) but sometimes surprises will completely shift our lives in a simple moments notice. This family has pushed and toiled through agony these last 7 months. Recently, she lost the baby. It was a little girl and she’s with Jesus now. This is a sad story but none of this caught God off guard. He wasn’t surprised and still has everything under control. (Keep this family in your prayers as they filter through the emotions and life changes that will come with this.)

I was thinking today about surprises….mostly bad surprises. And that the one thing that God has never felt or experienced….may very well be “surprise!”. He already knows what has happened, what is happening and what will happen. He’s gotten every day of our lives figured out and under control. Thinking about surprise…a little more… when we get a bad surprise we have to make adjustments to accommodate them whether they are for you personally or for other people. And usually in that process we feel a little frantic. But God doesn’t. Since He doesn’t get surprised…then He doesn’t have to make split second decisions on how to accommodate situations. All that said…

Rest assured.