What to Expect When You’re Least Expecting

There are few phrases that irritate me more than the attempted pat on the back of “It’ll happen when you least expect it.”

When I was single, well-meaning, happily married or disgustingly-in-love couples would rub each other’s shoulders, listen to my bad dating stories, and wave away my doubt and misgivings by buying me a ticket to the land of “least expect it.”

So when I grocery shopped, at the mall, in the library, at the obligatory single mingle event, I tried my best to least expect it. Meanwhile, my bad dating stories continued to outweigh the good ones.

And the phrase has stuck around.

Now, as a married woman who doesn’t have any children yet, “least expect it” shows up at baby showers and friend’s kids’ birthdays. “Don’t worry,” they say, “You’ll have kids when you least expect it.” It’s like going to buy a t-shirt, and discovering they don’t have small, medium, and large. All they have is “least expect it” and it just isn’t my size. It turns out there is no such size, in t-shirts or in life.

Sometimes we pray, debate, bang fists, do everything we can think of to get what we want. Despite all the well-meaning advice we’ve dispensed and taken, least expecting it is not the central variable to getting what you want out of life or God.

The truth is this:

There is no magic fairy dust to getting what you want. Self-help books, karma and the law of attraction can give you a couple of tips but no guarantees. We are all forced to learn the same lessons our parents tried to impress on us when we were three years old: you don’t always get what you want and you have to learn to deal with that.

Maybe being grateful for what you have is one way you can deal. Maybe spending more time just enjoying the present instead of “least expecting” for the future, is another way. One thing I’m learning is to accept when life may or may not turn out the way I expected.

I love to plan.

I’m not a big fan of change, and many times I just wish God would do exactly what I think He should do, when I think He should do it. This also means most times I’ve surmised in my head the right way I think things should go, leaving no room in my expectations for the fact that God already has a plan that I don’t have to least expect.

“Least expecting” is the counterfeit version of what is really necessary: surrender.

Surrender is the place where all of hearts must build an altar, a place to take our wants, frustrations, hurts, and “least expecting” to God who is not a genie or a wishing well, but a Father who loves us, whose plans are better for us than any plans we could make for ourselves.

What to Expect When You’re Least Expecting is a post from: Storyline Blog