Suprise Me, Day One

I'm not sure what I expected with this faith adventure that I'm doing with Marcia. Was God going to send a dozen roses for my kitchen table? That would be a cool surprise. Or maybe I'd come home and my bathroom would suddenly be tiled so that I could actually take a shower again. That might be on the order of miraculous! But instead I found myself at the end of the day last night wishing that I wasn't doing this silly thing. Had God actually surprised me with anything? I had way cooler things happen in the past few weeks when I wasn't asking him to surprise me.

And then I realized that I've more or less been living my life like this for the past few weeks. I've been expecting God to do things in my life, and he has. And I reviewed yesterday again this morning I began to see God's hand in a number of things.

• My neighbor is dying of cancer. Leukemia. Yeah, how could that be God's working in my life? And yet what I saw yesterday afternoon showed me how much God is changing me. Several weeks ago he gave me the courage to go over there and just be with this family. And he is continuing to give me that courage, as I seem to lack it just before I ring their doorbell on any given afternoon. Yesterday while I was there, she showed me some sores on her legs. I have never seen something so painful looking in my life. So -- what's my point? As I was reading The New Friars, (yes, that book again), I was wishing that I could be in a place where I could help take care of the dying. And it hit me this morning that God is giving me just that sort of opportunity. By my brief visits I am able to bring some of God's love into this family's life. And I realized as I left yesterday that for the first time I was able to be with someone who had leukemia and NOT assume that Jonathan's cancer was going to come back. So, there's two gifts in here. It is NOT easy to watch someone die. I often feel very sad when I think of Bernice and Neal. But at the same time, it is a gift to watch Bernice as she prepares to move from this life into the next one. She loves God so much and is ready to see her Father.

There's more, but I think that is enough for the day. God is full of amazing surprises for me, and many of them appear to be in the ordinary day-t0-day life of loving him.