Five Minute Friday: Expect

I thrive on busyness. Perpetual motion. Like this view from Times Square, the more tasks and opportunities I have to accomplish within my little kingdom, the higher my self-satisfaction climbs. My  lengthy to-do list fuels my addiction to achievement. There’s always something to do, right? So let’s get. it. done.

To be perfectly honest, I expect that if I keep doing, life will go well for me and my people. If I’m busy, I must be on the road to success. If I’m doing everything I can to ‘make it happen’, I expect my diligence will be rewarded.

Well. God has a way of refining us over time, doesn’t He? Over and over again in recent years, He has taught me to shift my focus. To set aside my self-absorbed expectations and turn my eyes to Him. Maybe He speaks His wisdom through sound advice from a trusted friend, or protects me from a lousy decision by guiding me through a different door, a door that opens to abundant blessings far better than anything I might’ve orchestrated on my own. Sometimes He leads me to a conference where I hear life-changing wisdom from a gifted teacher. {Shout out to Allen Arnold and The Story of With!}

I’m not a quick learner when it comes to adjusting my expectations. Stubborn and hard-headed more often than not. But the Creator of the universe knows this about me, and patiently teaches me to re-evaluate my short-sighted expectations, and instead bask in all that He has for me.

This week I had to let my expectations about a particular life path go. I had to stop demanding my own way and commit (yet again) to waiting on God’s timing. I’m not particularly happy about this. I expect that when I see an objective on the horizon, I’ll be able to snatch it promptly.

You’d think I’d know by now to not be surprised when life doesn’t work that way. Still, I puttered around the house, disillusioned by the circumstances surrounding me. Then I opened a package from a writer friend. It’s her first book, a beautiful novel releasing later this year. Tucked inside the cover was a lovely 5 x 7 photo on cardstock with the following verse:

“The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.”  -Exodus 14:14

Of course He will. God’s so clever, isn’t He? Using whatever means necessary to remind me of His Truth.

On Fridays we write for Five Minutes, unscripted, on a chosen prompt. Today I went waaaayyyy over 5 minutes. Thanks for reading this far.