Prayer #44: Unexpect the Expected

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. {Mark Twain}

Prayer #44: Unexpect the Expected

Nature abhors comfort.

Security, consistency, predictability ... all are pleasant ideas that have bearing in our lives, but are no means as dependable as we wish them to be.

It's not such a bad thing. Having a wolf at your door can help you move faster, think smarter, act stronger. (Or you can become paralyzed with fear and become a wolf snack, but that's a moral for a different time.)

Wouldn't it be lovely, though, if you could be fast/smart/strong WITHOUT the wolf? Just act that way all the time, on your own, in good times and bad? How much would we get accomplished then, I wonder. How much could we achieve, and dream, and grasp?

Lord, help me unexpect the expected. Grant me the wisdom to understand -- and I mean REALLY UNDERSTAND -- that life is change, and I change with it, not merely in response to it.

Keep the wolf at my mind rather than my door -- a prowling, pacing reminder that we don't need to live in fear, we just need to live aware.

And I pray that when the expected expires, and the known is no more, that You stay by my side and re-focus me on the only dependable comforts out there: Your love and Your grace.

Amen.