I remember growing up as a little girl, having expectations that the world would shape up to be a very predictable thing that I could make sense of. It’s funny reminiscing about all of the things I thought would happen, and the order I expected them to happen in. If you had asked me as a teenager where I expected to see myself at twenty-five years of age, it certainly wouldn’t have been as a student studying Bible and Theology, single, working three jobs, considering seminary and running about like a crazy person, surrounded by a loving community. But this is where God has planted me, and it is such a stunningly beautiful time in life.
Needless to say, with all of that in mind, it seems that the common thread I have encountered in this season of life, speaking to other individuals, is that God works in ways that we don’t necessarily expect. Is this unsettling most of the time? Absolutely, but it’s also one of the most exciting things to hear people recount stories of their lives being completely redirected in response to God’s voice calling them onto avenues they didn’t necessarily expect to tread.
Along this same vein, I just finished having lunch with a delightful woman who shares similar sentiments about where God has called her. As I asked her more about her story and the situations she had experienced in life, I came to find out that her earlier years were dappled with events that made her feel as if she was “unqualified” or “unworthy” to take on certain roles, predominantly within the church. She’s very recently taken on the task of becoming the Director of a Women’s Ministry at a church, while experiencing the myriad of emotions that have been compounded by adopting such a significant task. As we continued to speak I was reminded of Isaiah 42:16, “And I will lead the blind in a way they do not know, in paths that they have not known, I will guide them. I will turn darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.” You see, God takes the blind, the lame, the sick, and the hurting and has the power to transform them into a people who not only find themselves unexpectedly placed, but also end up impacting the communities around them. I always used to read that verse thinking “the blind” was speaking of someone other than myself, but I’ve realized I am the blind person. God brings the lost into his fold, but he doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t adopt children, and leave them to steep in the hurt and regret of their past. Rather, he shakes up each preconceived notion and assumption we’ve constructed about reality and our own capabilities while redefining the lines that we have laid out as boundaries for ourselves. What we may see as a steep impossibility, may be the very thing that God is calling you to in order to manifest his power in this hurting world.
Although my friend is approaching this new opportunity with more than a tinge of trepidation, she knows that it is because of the power of God that she has found herself in a situation that requires her to allow him to reshape and redefine her identity by calling her into a place of discomfort. She is learning, and we should learn to expect the unexpected having given our lives to a Savior, historically known for shaking up societal suppositions. Why would our lives look any different? And for that matter, why would we want them to?
