God Loves Surprises

Lent is coming to a close, and as we celebrate Passover and Good Friday, in preparation for Easter Sunday, I am reflecting on how much my life has changed in these 40 days.

I could not have guessed on Ash Wednesday, way back there in February, that these weeks would bring me such blessing. I knew that God was up to something, and that the call I felt to observe a strict fast and really make time for Him during the season was important. It wasn't just some whim, but a real conviction that God was asking me to go deep with Him and wait in hope for Him.

Hope seemed to be the theme-putting aside false hopes, learning to allow myself to experience the bittersweet pain of unrealized hope, and ultimately remembering that my hope must be in the Giver of blessings and not in the blessings or the methods He uses. In the midst of giving up certain foods and ways of spending my time, I found myself being able to also give up some of my fear, my disbelief, and my inability to trust. I experienced a lot of joy and peace as I spent time in prayer and worship and had encouraging talks with friends about how good our God is. The Spirit worked in my heart and drew me closer to God than I had been in months, and I found that for perhaps the first time, I was really learning how to be still and know that He is God.


But none of this prepared me for the surprise that God had waiting for me.


His name is Jeremy.

Faithfulness

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

~Lamentations 3:19-26

My heart is so full right now I can't even tell you. The last month has been incredible, and last night...well, that is another blog post.

But for right now, I can tell you, that God is faithful. So incredibly faithful. And I know that I knew that He was faithful, but every now and then, when you get a taste of the blessings, when it is just staring you in the face, and you realize that He was planning this all along, that He had this trick up His sleeve, that all those nights when you were alone and frustrated and asking God why and how long, He knew, and He was just waiting with delicious anticipation to bring you a bit of goodness here on this earth in this life, well, that just blows you away.