R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Thoughts

"Leave room for the unexpected."
Sue Bender, author of Plain and Simple Wisdom

Surprised by Joy. The book by C.S. Lewis is the story of his journey to belief. The kind of surprises I like are the kind talked about by C.S. Lewis even though his journey to joy was, like ours, full of tears and questions and discouragement. Especially now, I think it's important to leave some spaces in our lives and in our heads so that we can be surprised by something good when it comes. It seems like most of the good surprises in life come when we are consistently doing our best to do our best. When we are keeping on keeping on. On the other hand, when we are doing the kind of sobbing and screaming and refusing to accept that I was doing at the beginning of my midlife divorce journey, we are much less likely to be surprised by joy. We are too busy acting crazy. (And don't get me wrong, acting crazy at times during this seems to be the rule rather than the exception) I don't think I have talked with one woman who didn't act at least a bit out of the norm during her divorce saga. And most of us act waaaay out of the norm. But it seems when we are calmly, surely, quietly going about the business of learning to trust God and learning to accept change and learning to find our new selves the best we can ... it seems that is the time when we are absolutely blown away unexpectedly by some amazing delight of life, or some incredibly beautiful experience or some unbelievable sense of peace or deep pure joy. Today, let's just live so that there is room for the deliciously unexpected. Here is one of my experiences like that: One summer morning in the midst of my divorce, I was on the front porch of my house with my coffee doing my morning Bible reading, and a light bulb went off in my head about some previously unnoticed, but obvious, spiritual truth ... when suddenly in the soft morning sun, the most beautiful butterfly came and gently sat right on the top of my book. It was a breathtaking, unexpected gift that still encourages me.

"Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things ... for great is the Holy one of Israel, who lives among you."
Isaiah 12: 5a;6b