Monday, May 18, 2009

Surprise Me God

Surprise me God by Terry Esau is a great book. I read it originally while my husband was deployed to Iraq the first time. I sent it to him when I was through and he read it also. It is a simple fast read book. He simply gets up every morning and says SURPRISE ME GOD! Not giving God his agenda or laundry list of to dos. Then he keeps his eyes open for God's surprises.

I think we all need to do this more. Instead of praying and then saying "Oh ya, could you fix,......" You fill in the blank. I know I do that.

So today I started. I was in the shower and said "Okay Lord, I know I'm in the way of some things and I don't know how to get out of the way. I'm going to try and not give you my request list today and just say SURPRISE ME GOD." So I tried all day to be mindful of that simple request.

I did school work with the boys like normal. Did some stuff for CMWTR. Tried to come up with a name and then quit. Made dinner, all the normal daily stuff. Except 9 loads of laundry isn't normal for a Monday. I guess that was a surprise today. But that was more of my own fault because I left it all weekend.

Later in the day I had this nagging feeling. A feeling of empty and alone. The one where you could sit down and cry for no darn good reason at all. Just to cry and say OH POOR ME. I guess that was a surprise today too. I didn't plan on that feeling.

Last year was a very difficult year for me. My grandma decided after 5 years of dialysis to stop. It was almost a year ago that I flew home knowing that would be the last time I was with her. Maybe that is part of this weird feeling that I have today.

We took the boys to buy batting helmets for baseball. They don't have to have their own but it makes life so much easier. SURPRISE! Look at the price. Now I'm sure God didn't change the price sticker before I walked in the door but it sure was a shocker. The last surprise of the day was on the way home. Okay last two. The boys DIDN'T FIGHT IN THE BACK SEAT! That is more of a miracle than a surprise. The last one being we went out and ended up spending hardly any money. After sticker shock on the helmets we found a good deal and I had a gift card so we hardly paid anything extra. Usually when my husband and I shop together we end up out $100 or more. SURPRISE! God said to keep it for other things.

You don't have to buy Terry's book in order to take part in the faith experiment. You can simply say SURPRISE ME GOD. But his book is a fun read. Take the plunge. Tomorrow simply say SURPRISE ME GOD. What will happen? You never know unless you say those three little words.

1 comment:

  1. I know after 17 years of hearing my own prayers and the prayers of others. Its rare to hear anyone just talking to God vs it being

    Help me with this
    Give me this
    Bless them
    Bless us
    Show us this

    God must have turned on the Engage signal a long time ago... as all we do is ask for stuff

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