Caught Unawares
Happy to catch a break in the rain at last, I set out Friday morning to run my errands under cloudy but dry skies. It was windy with a nip in the air, but otherwise rather pleasant after the torrential downpours we’d been experiencing. I’d checked off three stops already and made my way into the grocery store, list in one hand, reusable bags in the other. Forty-five minutes later I was having a pleasant chat with the cashier at checkout when he asked if I was headed home for the rest of the day, ya know, given the rainstorm outside. I looked out the glass automatic doors at the store entrance, eyes widening at the sheets of sideways rain. I groaned. I thought of my umbrella, stashed in the door of my car twenty yards away, utterly useless. I had no hood or jacket of any kind and my sneakers, while comfortable, were pathetically thin. I pushed my overloaded cart full of a week’s worth of groceries out under the awning and prayed for the rain to alleviate, but to no avail. Knowing the puddles between me and my car were only deepening the longer I waited, I decided to make a run for it, but not without first looking for something in my cart to cover my head.
To my relief, there was one leftover grocery bag tucked in the corner of my cart. Necessity is the mother of invention, I thought. I grabbed it and slid it over my head, sticking my face through one of the handles. Shoving all self-consciousness aside I gripped the cart and bolted across the parking lot. As I ran, the bag on my head began to slip, rendering me blind. Before I knew it I had plowed my cart at full speed into the median. The impact sent my groceries flying and I watched helplessly as my loaf of fresh olive bread landed in a puddle and a container of diced melon exploded and scattered across the wet asphalt. They were sacrifices I’d have to live with. I trekked on, adjusting the bag on my head and feeling every eye from passing cars on me. By the time I unloaded my groceries into the trunk and collapsed into the front seat, I was soaked from head to toe. I am certain my jaunt through the parking lot was the fodder for many dinnertime conversations that evening, including my own. My kids are still laughing about it.
If you know anything about Enneagram Ones, you know we don’t like being caught unawares, even for good things. For me, surprises of any kind rank right up there with gynecological exams and oral surgery. I like order, plans, and well-oiled machines. As you can imagine, I am often flustered. Life doesn’t always go the way I expect it to and I am frequently caught off guard by unforeseen circumstances. This stark reality used to make me an inflexible, stressed, irritable, pain in the you-know-what. God bless my husband for marrying me in spite of these things. Over the years I have matured and grown. I have my husband to thank for this mostly. His optimistic outlook has rubbed off on me and I find my heart bending in that “glass is half full” direction more often than not.
Oh I still grumble from time to time (like when I’m caught in a downpour with only a grocery bag to protect me from the rain), but I’ve learned to err on the side of optimism and make the best of the situation. I’ve also learned to improvise. Just ask my Echo Dot how many times I’ve started a question with, “Alexa, what’s the best substitute for…” while up to my elbows in dinner preparation. (Fun fact: You can make your own buttermilk by measuring 1 Tablespoon white vinegar and adding enough regular milk to make 1 cup.) When I look around and make use of what I already have, it ends up being kind of fun. (Usually, that is, because apparently canned peaches will not do in a pinch for Asian Chicken Salad when you realize you bought them instead of canned mandarin oranges. Trust me on this one. The flavor is ALL wrong.) Sometimes it even turns out better than the original, like when my daughter couldn’t find her watercolor paints so she added water to dots of magic marker on a piece of plastic and made her own! She ended up creating a beautiful picture for an art contest submission, one of her best yet. What a beautiful example of how to make the best of what we’ve been given. Innovation can bring pleasant surprises.
Unlike us, God is never caught unawares. He is never surprised by what life throws our way. In His world, there are no curveballs. He is the God of good and perfect plans that are never thrown off course. This may frustrate some of us because that means God KNEW we would be stuck in that traffic jam on the way to catch our flight at the airport. It means He orchestrated that coffee spill on our shirt just before we walked into the interview. In those moments we may feel that God and the universe are out to get us. I assure you that isn’t the case. Growth happens in the unexpected. Even when we don’t anticipate it, God does, and He provides everything we need to navigate our new circumstances. He does not lean back and wait for the chaos to ensue, rather He leans in, encouraging us to take a look around and find the gifts in the unforeseen. While we may imagine a perfect world in which everything goes according to plan, we are never unprepared and we always know what’s coming around the bend (no, Enneagram Ones, that’s not heaven), that is also a world with no ingenuity, no improvisation, and no innovation. Would you be who you are today in a world like that? I know I wouldn’t.
I have found my deepest wisdom is gleaned from the times in my life when things were thrown at me from left field and I had to think fast. I dare say I am at my best when I am forced to redirect and think on my feet. It’s there I discover what I’m capable of. It turns out I can be both impulsive and ingenious, (yes, me)! I work well under pressure and I am a lot more inventive than I give myself credit for. Does it always work out? Of course not. That grocery bag did not, after all, keep me the least bit dry and I lost a few groceries in the ordeal. But the me a few years ago would never have dared to embarrass herself in a parking lot full of strangers. Learning to face the unexpected has built my confidence. How others perceive me no longer dictates my actions, and that is worth being caught in a rainstorm.
Wisdom and growth are found in life’s little surprises, both the blessings and the tribulations, if we only stop and take the time to see them. We may often find ourselves unprepared but God never leaves us unequipped. He provides just what we need when we need it, even at the last minute.
“Mama always said life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you’re gonna get.” -Forrest Gump