Expect the Unexpected

· by · in USA. ·

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As the year comes to an end, it’s only natural to look back over 2013 in reflection and look forward to new goals and resolutions in the year to come. I am horrible with resolutions, so every January I try to come up with a saying for the year – a combination of goals and dreams, lessons learned and ways to grow.

Taking Chances, Enjoy Today, Open to Love, Closed to Love (haha), and Magic Moments are a few of the themes I’ve had over the years.  After reflecting over the highs and lows of 2013 I think my theme for 2014 is going to be…. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Expectations are both a blessing and a curse. If you don’t expect anything…you won’t be disappointed, but you also set the standards pretty low for anything great to happen. If your expectations are high, you run the risk of failure, disappointment, heartbreak. But perhaps expecting the unexpected could bring a little bit of magic, a little bit of amazement back into the world.

Earlier this year I had my life all planned out. I had an incredible job, incredible friends, an amazing apartment and life…but, I was looking for the next step. Many of you have walked with me long enough to know my story of dating in LA. I waited and waited aaaaand waited for a great guy to come along. And when he did… I could see the future and the future was looking pretty amazing!
But then my “happily-ever-after” ended and my world came crashing down. My expectations were disappointed. Crushed actually. I found myself at a crossroad of faith. I had followed all the “rules” I was taught in church. And it wasn’t working out as I had planned. A lifetime of hopes and dreams and fears and innermost parts of my heart… offered up to a God who is all loving and trustworthy and cares for me, thinking that if I did the right thing I would be rewarded. Thinking that if I waited and guarded my heart, my first love would be my last love.  Only to feel like my heart had been broken by the One whom I thought I could trust the most..  What the F God?!
I expected. And I was disappointed.

I’m sure I am not alone. Maybe you didn’t get the dream job you knew you were so perfect for. Maybe the treatment didn’t work and the cancer returned. Your parents split up. Your friend passed away. Maybe you lost your house….At some point in our lives we have all had to deal with disappointed expectations. Of God. Of others. Of ourselves.

How do we handle our disappointed expectations? I must confess, I haven’t been so great at handling mine. I keep busy. Really busy. I travel. I do the things that bring me the most joy. I try to give back and serve in my community.  Most days I pray. Some days I go on strike. Some days I cry. Some days I cry a lot.

But if life always went our way and we always got what we wanted, we would never grow.

Maybe the disappointed expectation that we face today will lead us to the unexpected of tomorrow. There is a certain joy and excitement in the unknown. In the unexpected.

Tomorrow is going to come, whether we want it to or not.

How are we going to embrace it?

I am going to expect the unexpected. And trust that something awesome is on the horizon…

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