You may recall that last year I watched the Super Bowl solely because Beyonce was doing the half time show. Due to a strange combination of factors, I actually care who is playing this year. Because my hockey team is perpetually terrible, and because I needed something to watch that I didn’t have to pay close attention to whilst knitting, I became a casual NFL fan. Last Saturday I watched parts of both games, and I found myself checking the NFL scores on my phone before I even thought to look up the final score in the Oilers game (they lost, shocker). Never in a million years did I think I would care about NFL football. And yet here I sit on Friday, kind of totally excited about the games on Sunday. Unexpected, right?
When I wrote my Year in Review post a few weeks ago, I was excited to fill out the “What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?” section because I knew it would be a mile long. Last year was a year of firsts, and being stretched to try new things. I knew it would be going in. In January of last year I knew that I would be going to Africa and I would be forced to fundraise and do all kinds of things that would place me squarely out of my comfort zone. It was scary and exciting at the same time. After I came back from Christmas holidays this year and started work again, I felt discouraged by real life. I know that sounds a bit dramatic but that’s how I roll. I don’t have much planned for 2014. And I felt like I was looking ahead to an empty year with nothing in it. I shared this with a friend and she (lovingly) told me, “Sarah, that’s completely ridiculous! You have now idea what awesome things God will do in your life this year.”
My friend Michelle wrote this post on New Years about all the major things that she never saw coming last year, both good and bad. And she ended it with a reminder to expect the unexpected. When I was home, both my Mom and my oldest friend challenged me that my perspective on my life needed to change a little bit (that is a post all on its own, for another day). Slowly, God is working to change my heart. I’m learning to expect that I won’t see everything coming or know what he’s doing. But He is trustworthy and good. And He is constantly molding me into someone new (who likes football, apparently). And I can expect that he will continue his work in me and bring it to completion.
So here’s to expecting the unexpected in 2014. Who knows, maybe by this time next year I will be a baseball fan and super into the world series? (Unlikely. Also, I hope not.)