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I don’t like surprises. However, there are a few surprises that I don’t mind like gifts, a lower electric bill than expected, or 50% off coupons for pizza (pepperoni with extra cheese please). I doubt that there are many people who would mind being surprised in these cases. Gifts, low bills, and coupons are nice and I’ll take them all day, any day. However, there are some surprises that I don’t like at all. It’s those surprises that make for a bad day.

Uninvited squatters

All of us have been hit with unexpected troubles. Unannounced surprises that make themselves at home like uninvited squatters that freeload off of you. They don’t pay rent or contribute positively to the household in any way. In the morning when you wake up, there they are sitting in your living room, reminding you that they haven’t left. As a matter of fact, they don’t intend to go anywhere until they are attended to in a manner that pleases them. They aren’t at all concerned about how their presence effects your life.

This is why I don’t like surprises. Like you, I do my best to avoid unexpected and unnecessary trouble. Over the years, for example, I’ve made sure to exercise regularly and eat right. Except for the odd pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni (and ice cream for dessert), I do pretty well.

Osteoarthritis was an unwelcome squatter in my mother’s life, she suffered a lot due to the condition. Considering her experience, I’ve long heeded the doctor’s advice in an effort to keep osteoarthritis from making itself at home in my life with proper diet and exercise. While I’m no expert, I’ve dabbled in many forms of exercise: walking, running, pilates, strength training, and HIIT, to name a few. I go through phases of different exercises. When I get bored, I shift to another plan or program. I am thankful that I feel good. So far, with the power of prayer and doing what I can, I’m good. This doesn’t mean I don’t feel an ache or a pain here and there, it just means that God has kept me.

Not immune to the unexpected surprise

I’m not immune, though, to the unexpected and unannounced. I’ll eventually deal with an unexpected surprise. How I deal with that surprise goes a long way in determining its effect on my life. There have been times in my life when I’ve been angry with God because it seemed He didn’t prevent the unexpected from coming my way. I also felt angry because He apparently wasn’t doing anything to alleviate my suffering in the troubles I was going through. Wasn’t I serving Him? Shouldn’t I be living a Pollyanna life, sheltered from storms? He knows I don’t like surprises.

That entitled feeling kept me from learning and living in the storms of life. I spent a lot of time just trying to get through the storm instead of learning what I could while going through the storm. I felt that if I was serving God, my life should have the “Midas touch” and be golden. Everything that concerned me should not have any trouble attached to it because I’m serving God after all. I believed that God has the best in store for my life (I still believe His plan is best), therefore I won’t be harmed by the storms of life. If storms came my way, I had the impression that God wasn’t keeping to His end of the bargain.

Living on the edge with no idea

Raising our family thousands of miles from our homeland has not been without surprise. I often struggled with feelings of inadequacy as a parent and wondered what the repercussions of raising our children in the developing world would be. Parenting in one’s own culture is challenging enough. I found myself in a foreign land with the responsibility of raising children. It was a daunting experience, to say the least. This marked the beginning of the shaking of my understanding of the Christian life. It wasn’t at all what I thought it would be.

In the early-mid 1990s, when our first three children were very young, we were living in Burundi. We had planted our first church and things were wonderful. The church was growing in spite of my lack of experience. I wasn’t raised in a church leader’s home as my husband Jamie was. I had no idea until I married Jamie, of the work that went into growing a church. Nevertheless, I dove in and loved living on the edge with him and doing whatever I could to help. Planting a church cross-culturally is an interesting experience (I sense another post coming on this subject). Top that off with raising a young family in that setting and you’l definitely see your life change.

We were surprised

The rapid growth of our church at that time was a rush emotionally and spiritually. I’ve not had another experience quite like it since then and I cherish those years. Yet, as suddenly as the miracle of planting and growing that church began, we were surprised. There was nothing we could do when war shook the nation and, consequently, our lives.

Tensions in the region in Burundi and neighboring Rwanda were nothing new. Even so, we expected God to hear our prayers to prevent hostilities from erupting. We prayed daily and we prayed fervently for peace to prevail. Yet, war came to the nation in 1993 when the president was assassinated. A dark veil shrouded Burundi for over a decade as warring factions struggled for power.

We tried to go

I can’t adequately describe what happened in Burundi during those dark days of war. What I can say is that we survived. However, many hundreds of thousands did not. The anguish left in the wake of the war speaks until today and is seen in a broken society where a generation of children have grown up fatherless and motherless. The situation left us feeling hopeless, we wondered if our little church would survive in the middle of the chaos. We wondered if we should stay or leave. What was the answer?

We had worked hard just to get to Burundi let alone plant a church. God had faithfully kept us through the process of getting there, establishing us legally in the country, and finally planting the church. Did He do all that for nothing? Like other expat workers in the nation, we had to decide what we were going to do. Were we going to stay or were we going to go? Many left, but there were some like ourselves who stayed. We tried time and again to go, but we could never bring ourselves to step on a plane and leave. That didn’t mean that we didn’t struggle, we did. But for some reason, God kept us there.

I still don’t like surprises

I don’t like surprises. And, I especially don’t like surprises like the one we faced in Burundi. Prior to 1993, living in the middle of a civil war was the farthest thing from my mind. Living on the mission field was my life’s dream. I knew God had given me the dream. He surprised me by putting me where a war would erupt. I find it hard to believe that God was caught off guard when angels reported that war had broken out in Burundi. He didn’t shake His head and say, “What will we do? I left the Peters family there, I forgot all about them!” He was aware of what would happen well before sending us. We were the ones who were surprised.

War is a strange thing. Hostilities ebb and flow. There won’t be consistent fighting everywhere all the time. It comes and goes. The first months after the president’s assassination, the fighting was mostly confined to the country’s interior. It wasn’t until later that war descended on the city of Bujumbura where we were living.

At the onset of the war, internally displaced people fleeing the violence fled to Bujumbura in the tens of thousands. Churches and local organizations joined forces to help the vulnerable. We saw many thousands fed and clothed day in and day out. We saw Jesus in action through His people. I’ve never seen a purer form of the church than during those days of war. No one cared what the name of your church was or if you met on a Saturday or Sunday. The question that mattered when asked was, “Are you alright? Is your family alright?”

Beauty hidden in the surprise

Yes, our family was alright. We made it through those years and our children, while grown and out of the nest (save one) all love Africa. It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. During those years, I learned that there’s beauty hidden in the surprise. As you can imagine, we spent many hours trying to figure out how to react to the surprises that war brought our way. But God was faithful to lead us and grow us in the moments we faced. We learned to trust Him beyond the ordinary. I believe more than ever that God will take care of our needs. However, what we need is often at odds with what we want.

Do not be surprised

Why did we choose to stay under those circumstances? Wouldn’t it have been better to find another place to serve? Perhaps we could have found another place to plant a church. But would it have been the right thing to do? There’s no guarantee of safety anywhere, especially these days. No matter where one goes, the threat of violence, drugs, and theft, are all possible. We decided to face the surprise head-on and instead of asking, “Why is this happening to us?” We began to understand, “Why not us?” War taught us a valuable lesson: if we can trust God to lead us, He will make a way through.

The fires of life are around the corner for each of us. We can’t avoid them, we can’t run away from them. That we’re facing them doesn’t indicate that our faith isn’t working or that we’re doing something wrong. The trials of life are just that: a part of life. They come with the territory of being on planet Earth. The good news is that Jesus has made a way through for us. He overcame it all and with Him, we can make it through.

Stable when the surprises come

The peace Jesus left keeps us stable when the surprises come and catch us unaware. If all we think is that our faith is a “get out of jail” card, we are mistaken. God isn’t looking to take us out of the world, He keeps us here to serve others for Him. We’re here to make a difference in the middle of the fire for others who need to hear there is a God Who loves and cares for them. This is the mission we are on as we make our way to our ultimate home.

I still don’t like surprises. But there’s something I don’t like even more than surprises, living without purpose. The moment you live on purpose for God, life will surprise you. Don’t give up, just set your gaze on Him Who calms the storms. He may seem to be sleeping (see Mark 4:37-39) but He is aware. When you call Him, He will calm the storm and get you through to the other side.

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