“Lord, Surprise Me With Your Superior Plan”

Do you like surprises? My instinctive response is always yes. But then I wonder, Wait a minute, what kind of surprise are we talking about? While we may occasionally enjoy a good surprise, a key feature of human nature is the powerful drive to predict and control outcomes: our environment, health, schedule, finances, food (That’s not medium rare!), and even the weather (Will it rain this afternoon? How long and how hard?).

Our whole worldview is wrapped around the notion of anticipating and manipulating our circumstances.

To a point, this is a natural, God-given capacity and responsibility to “fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28).

But, as we see in Eden, we are always in danger of trying to usurp God’s role by taking control over things that are rightfully His alone.

In reality, it’s almost always in unexpected situations that we learn the most about God and ourselves.

When life follows my plans and meets my expectations, I may enjoy feeling secure and relaxed, but I’m probably not growing. Perhaps that’s one reason why God has a beautiful, unnerving, exhilarating, and sometimes frustrating way of surprising us, again and again, with His superior (but not necessarily comfortable) plan.

While God is consistent in His character, from a human standpoint, He often strikes us as unpredictable in His methods. Words often attributed to Charles West sum it up well:

“We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them.”

God is the most creative Person in the universe, so it makes sense that He has packed the Bible full of surprises. It’s an astonishing book from cover to cover. Nearly every page would shock us if it weren’t so familiar. Scripture contains so many unexpected events and ideas that some readers relegate it to the genre of myth and fable.

• A global deluge decimates the earth, except for one man and his family. Fortunately, they just spent 50 years building a big boat to save themselves and the planet’s animal life.
• Hundreds of thousands of slaves escape on a 40-year journey through the desert, plundering their oppressors on their way out of town after a series of nation-crippling plagues.
• A shepherd poet kills a giant with a slingshot and becomes king.
• Daniel gets a decent night’s sleep in a pit full of hungry lions.
• A peasant girl named Esther becomes queen of Persia while the prime minister is hung on the gallows he prepared for her cousin.

Jesus’ birth is a huge surprise to almost everyone, including His own mother. Virtually everything He says surprises His listeners. So does His death, even though He repeatedly predicted it. Then Jesus shocks His followers (as well as the guards and religious authorities) by rising from the dead. I expect His Second Coming to also be a big surprise, even for those of us anticipating it.

And these are just a few examples among hundreds.

Considering the Bible’s countless surprises, I propose a new field of study— “surprisology.” And, while we’re at it, let’s add a new name for God to our lexicon: “God the Surpriser.”

As we study His Word, let’s ask the key question, “What things surprise me, or should surprise me, in this text?” Our wonder or dismay at God’s actions and self-revelation in Scripture can help us identify gaps in our understanding of His nature and purposes.

Not everyone wants to be surprised, even by God. Many of us are quite content to live within the confines of what we know and think we can control.

But if the Holy Spirit is drawing you toward the mysterious plan that He is carefully unfolding, join me in praying with child-like faith and maybe a healthy dose of trepidation, “Lord, surprise me today with Your superior plan.”

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Questions for Reflection or Discussion

1. Do you like surprises?
2. How has God surprised you, either recently or in your past?
3. What do you find most surprising about the way God acts and describes Himself in the Bible?
4. How content are you with your current involvement in God's global mission? Are you hesitant, willing, or eager to be surprised by how God may want to use you?

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