just had to share this... thank you, Pastor Chuck!!

March 29, 2015

Expect the Unexpected

by Charles R. Swindoll

Psalm 8

Most folks I know like things to stay as they are. You've heard all the sayings that reveal our preference for the familiar: Leave well enough alone. I don't like surprises. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Stay with a sure thing.

We admire pioneers . . . so long as we can just read about them, not finance their journeys. We applaud explorers . . . but not if it means we have to load up and travel with them. Creative ideas are fine . . . but "don't get carried away," we warn. Plans that involve risks prompt worst-case scenarios from the lips of most who wait in the wings.

Don't misunderstand. Just because the plan is creative is no guarantee that stuff won't backfire. On the contrary, surprises and disappointments await anyone who ventures into the unknown.

But the fact is, the alternative is worse. Can anything be worse than boredom? Is there an existence less challenging and more draining than the predictable? I don't think so.

More importantly, God doesn't seem to think so either. As I read through the biblical accounts of His working in the lives of His people, the single thread that ties most of the stories together is the unexpected. Need some examples?

After aging Abraham finally got the son God had promised to him, after he cultivated a father-son bond closer than words could describe, after fixing his hopes on all that God had said He would do through that boy to whom Sarah gave birth, God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on the mountain.

Even though the prophet Hosea had lived righteously before his Lord and had been faithful to his wife, Gomer, she left their home and family and became a harlot in the streets of Israel. God's instructions? Go find her and remarry her.

When it came time for God to send His Son to earth, He did not send Him to the palace of some mighty king. He was conceived in the womb of an unwed mother—a virgin!—who lived in the lowly village of Nazareth.

In choosing those who would represent Christ and establish His church, God picked some of the most unusual individuals imaginable: unschooled fishermen, a tax collector(!), a mystic, a doubter, and a former Pharisee who had persecuted Christians. He continued to pick some very unusual persons down through the ages. In fact, He seems to delight in such surprising choices to this very day.

So, let God be God. Expect the unexpected.

God likes surprises. Breaking molds is His specialty.

Perfectionism... Blessing or Curse?

growing up, i learned very early on that nothing short of perfection was good enough for my Mom. now, i loved my Mom and she taught me many things that are still part of the way i live my life today. but, looking back, i see that her push for perfection in my life (or what i perceived was a constant push), made me both a fearful and a driven person. 

fearful because i wouldn't DO something unless i knew i could do it well. fearful because i hesitated or never asked questions for fear that i would be asking the wrong one or that i would be laughed at by my classmates/peers. of course, i know NOW that there is NO SUCH THING AS A WRONG QUESTION!! i just wish i'd known that when i was in elementary, high school and college...!

the other side of the coin -- and there is ALWAYS a second side -- was that it made me a driven person. if i have a project or an assignment, i will not stop -- not even to eat! -- until it's finished. and if the project isn't done to my liking, i will REDO everything until i get it perfectly right!! 

thinking back on the years when my children were younger, i see that i never pushed them to perfection... probably because i didn't want them to "suffer" like i did. but, i wonder if i did them a disservice by not pushing them harder... however, as i've been able to observe them these past 2 years that we've been living with each of them (at different times since late 2012), as adults, they are all doing well in their personal lives (from what i can see anyway!!) and i can see that they have inherited (if that's the correct term) the intensity of my Mom to pursue excellence in their chosen field of work. it's nice to see that even if i didn't push them as hard as my mom pushed me, they still turned out to have excellent work ethic and a sense of pride in their personal and career achievements. so, i'm a happy mother...

now, i just pray that my grandkids will also "inherit" the same desire to excel... i think they will... i can already see that in josiah, keilah and jonah...