From the Pastor - July 2017

I don’t usually like surprises.  It probably stems from my preference to be in control. 

The trips my family took when I was growing up consisted of getting in the station wagon and heading in some general direction. 

Often, we did not have specific plans.  Instead, we “discovered” our vacations by stopping periodically at rest areas and picking up brochures for local points of interest.  My parents never reserved a hotel room more than one day in advance.  We were spontaneous and flexible.  Our vacations were “footloose and fancy-free.”

As an adult, I would rather know exactly where I am going and have assurances that I will have a place to rest my travel-worn body at the end of the day.  I learned this lesson from the year I visited Grand Tetons National Park.  The campground was full, and I had to drive over an hour outside the park for an available campsite in a nearby national forest.  I vowed never to let that happen again. 

But surprises can be good.  I was elated when a childhood friend made a surprise visit last month.  In fact, neuroscientists have shown that people get more pleasure from surprises than other sensations.¹ 

One hospice chaplain observes that when most people visit a dying person, they don’t ask questions without already knowing the answers.  The chaplain recommends taking the risk of being surprised by their answers.  The question he asks is: “When you are here all by yourself, what do you think about?”²

He recalls one man who gave a shocking answer: “I killed three men.”  It was a memory that haunted him from World War II. 

The man asked: “Will God forgive me?”  By risking surprise, the chaplain helped a man find forgiveness.

I like Frederick Buechner’s prayer of surprise:

“Lord, catch us off guard today.  Surprise us with some moment of beauty or pain so that for at least a moment we may be startled into seeing that you are here in all your splendor, always and everywhere, barely hidden, beneath, beyond, within this life we breathe.”³

Surprises remind us that we are not in absolute control.  But that isn’t so bad when we discover the unexpected joy of God’s abiding care.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Dr. Brian C. Smith

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¹ G. S. Berns et al., "Predictability Modulates Human Brain Response to Reward," The Journal of Neuroscience: the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience 21, no. 8 (2001).

² William H. Griffith, "Surprise," The Christian Century (June 7, 2017), 23.

³ Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 88-89.