By Cordell Winrow
You might think that I am joking when you read the heading, but I am quite serious. This is a prayer that is much deeper than you might expect at first glance. My experience with the Lord has taught me about how unpredictable, not to mention how unrestrained and daring, he can be. If you are used to a tame lion, something you might see in a zoo or circus, I need to remind you that he is the original Aslan, bigger than Mufasa and Simba. He is good, but nothing about Him is tame, controlled, or manipulated.
Another reason to consider this prayer is the fact that it is infinitely easy for Jesus to answer this specific prayer in a way that will bypass our understanding. While I’ve known him to be quite cheeky with how he chooses to respond to questions asked of Him, when you invite Him to freely do what he does best, most of the time we will miss the answer he chooses to give us. Again, mainly because we often have an expectation of what we are asking Him for, instead of actually asking for the thing we are truly after. While it might seem as if He is being childish, if we truly take a look at it from a different perspective, He is doing exactly what we have asked of Him.
Surprise me God as a prayer can be answered in a multitude of ways, which is why it will ALWAYS be answered. The real question is, will we perceive the answer when it comes? Or will we be blind to because of where our focus and expectation lies? The ease of which Jesus can show up in our lives is hard to fathom, let alone catch if we are not focused on Him in humble submission. Humility (tapeinophrosýnē), is an inside-out virtue produced by comparing ourselves to the Lord rather than to others. This brings external behavior and internal beliefs into alignment with this inner revelation to keep one from being self-exalting, self-determining, and self-inflated.
Put another way, asking Jesus to surprise you is effectively asking him to not only produce humility in us, but also patience (makrothymia and hupomone). Much like the previous prayer discussed, this is more than a one dimensional prayer that functions linearly. Something like this is far more robust with an unfathomable level of depth to be explored. Consider this, the timing, the events, the people, the places, the actions, the resources, and even heart transformations, all of which could be factors in the answering of this prayer. So, let’s go ahead and break it down.
Timing is an interesting facet of the answering of a prayer. Jesus could show up right away, or slightly delayed, days out, maybe even years, either way, because we know not the day, hour, or moment, it would ultimately end up as a surprise for us as we will not have been able to pre-determine the moment of his advent. This is just the tip of the veritable iceberg as this particular point can also be interwoven with several other variables.
Adding a layer to the conversation we could include events. Based on what has been stated about the timing of said things we can add to the fact that events can happen at any point. Yet, we are not limited there, as we also have to dig into the fact that He is not limited in the type of events that could be orchestrated. I mean, are we talking about a church service? Birthday extravaganza? A graduation? I mean he isn’t limited to the type of events that He can surprise you with.
What about the people, doesn’t that just add another layer and depth to the equation? I mean, we could talk about the timing of said person or people coming into our view. Or maybe it’s the event or events that said person or people are found at. Hopefully, it’s becoming quite apparent how vast and the full of possibilities this prayer is actually inundated with.
I will use one more example to drive home this point. Knowing that we have talked about timing, events, and people, let me add the lay or actions taken. This one layer by itself adds infinite possibilities to an already huge array of ways that Jesus could use to surprise us. Are we going to be surprised by the actions that someone else is going to take because He prompted them? Are we going to be surprised because of the action He takes on our behalf? Or is it the action He is going to take in response to us? Maybe it’s going to be the action that He protects us from experiencing? Even with these several instances, there are so many derivative forms of what could take place. This is all without considering timing, events, and people.
Hopefully it has become painfully obvious how robust a prayer like this is. I know most of us may not have considered prayer in this manner, but now that your heart and mind are primed, we can wade into an area of His heart for His children. As a Father, it brings me nothing but joy when my child asks me to surprise them. Of course I have a ton of thoughts, but the biggest thing on my heart and mind is how this surprise will affect them ultimately? I know the things that they need, I know the things that they want, and I know a lot of times that the surprise itself will cause them to be grateful and appreciative. So I am not looking to play a practical joke on them. I am not looking to dash their hopes. However, I also know that there are moments that the surprise that I bring for them can catch them off guard because they were not expecting what I was getting them.
Here is what I mean, if my child asked me to surprise them but in their mind they were thinking they were going to get an edible treat, they might not know how to take it if I got them the bubbles they had asked to have 3 months ago. Maybe they were thinking about being taken out to a store as a surprise, but instead I bought them a soccer ball that we could use at the park together. In some ways they would probably be confused because I didn’t meet their expectations, but I still fulfilled what they had asked. Not only did I fulfill their request, it was done in such a way that it would again bring us into spaces of intimate relationship. We would be able to play with the bubbles together on many occasions, and the same with the purchase of the soccer ball.
What I am getting at is this, asking Jesus to surprise you, isn’t simply about the surprise, it’s about the depth of relationship you will find yourself in as a result of the adventure to the surprise as well as after you receive the surprise. Because patience, humility, self-control, will all be cultivated with this prayer, it will cause you to have to stay in His presence and interact with Him on a regular basis. If we want to be aware of when the answer comes, we have to be with Him consistently.