I Want to be Surprised!

Written by Marisa Lykins

I used to love surprises so much when I was a child. I remember how it felt to feel my pulse quicken, my heartbeat get faster, and that quiver in the pit of my stomach – I loved it! But somehow I lost a little of that growing up. I guess, as an adult, I began to fully realize surprise goes hand-in-hand with change more times than not.

Lately I keep going back to this quote I read several months ago: “If you want God to surprise you, you have to give up control. You will lose a measure of predictability, but you will begin to see God move in uncontrollable ways.” ~from Mark Batterson’s ‘The Circle Maker’

Is it just me…why is giving up control never easy, even when it’s the type of control that holds me captive to complacency, to fear, to compromise, and to unfulfilled dreams? How nuts is that?

If you have accomplished this by the way, I would LOVE to hear how you have done it! I guess I do well in some areas, like letting Hubs pick where we eat sometimes (what are you laughing at? That’s progression believe it or not!).

But the hard part is I need to do it in ALL areas – all my relationships, all my worries, all the callings on my life, and all of my tomorrows. Of course the fact that it was never anything I had a handle on anyway is the truth of the matter that’s so hard to admit sometimes.

Isaiah 41:10 says ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, and surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’

What I really need to know and remember is this…That God keeps His promises. Always. And that Christ didn’t come that far (across eternity), give that much (everything), and give up that much (His own life on the cross), only to leave us to our own devices afterwards… He came to conquer!

But He came not only to conquer death and the grave eternally for us. He also came to conquer the here and now – to overcome that which we let stand in our way, that which He can remove in His power to give us the life we are designed to live!

I so want to try harder to let go and let Him bring me the things He wishes to give me… I want to trade the blessings my mind can see as good for me and those I love for the blessings that are BEST for me and those I love!

Ephesians 3:20 says ‘Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.’

If we are just willing to be surprised, He is so willing to blow our socks off! And even though that still scares me, sometimes I find now I am more excited than scared… and I don’t want what I can do…I want the ‘more’ He is waiting to do… Are you with me?!

Joyful on the Journey,
Marisa