Planning for the Unexpected

Key Verse: “They led him out to crucify him. They forced a man coming in from the country, who was passing by, to carry Jesus’s cross. He was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.” Mark 15:20-21 (CSB)

Life is not only full of unexpected pleasures but also full of unexpected heartache and disappointment.

Unfortunately, when you start your day reading scripture and saying a prayer it doesn’t serve as a guarantee that life won’t take you by surprise and lead you around some unexpected twists and turns. “In this world, you will have trouble, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world” was Jesus’s way of preparing us for just that.

Unexpected, unwanted, and seemingly unplanned things are going to happen. To all of us. 

The first day my husband showed symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis was like that. One day he was fine. The next our world would change. A big dose of unexpected blind-sighted us.

In one single day, our familiar life was gone. On diagnosis day, I would be given the biggest God assignment of my life. This caregiver assignment that I have tried desperately to convince God over the years that I was the wrong girl for the job. 

I have found myself thinking about Simon of Cyrene. This man that Mark highlights in scripture by telling us, “They led him out to crucify him. They forced a man coming in from the country, who was passing by, to carry Jesus’s cross. He was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.” Mark 15:20-21 (CSB) 

This man alone “was forced” to help Jesus carry his cross. 

Let’s face it on that particular day it would have been the last assignment any of us would have wanted to be given. Everyone in the crowd was spewing out,  “Crucify him, Crucify him” and then this man was called to step away from the crowd and help another man that everyone at that moment seemed to hate.

Think about that for a minute…You just got the job that no one else wanted.

I can’t speak for you but I know how that feels. No one wants to suffer through a bad diagnosis. No one wants to be the sole caregiver for someone who is ill.  No one wants to lose a child.  No one wants to lose their job. No one wants to carry the load that comes from pain and disappointment. 

When I ponder on how Simon probably started his day that morning, carrying a cross would have been the last thing on his mind. He had probably traveled to Jerusalem for Passover week. I’m sure he had plans to visit the temple, pray and pay tribute and give alms.

But helping a convicted criminal that the people in town wanted to hang on a cross would not have been on his itinerary. After all, He had religious things to do, holy festivities to participate in and he needed to be about holy business. He didn’t have time to get his hands dirty or mess up his tie. Besides he had his plans that day to “just pass by”.  Helping out the Son of God would have been the last thing on his religious agenda for the day.

Boy, can’t we get it so wrong sometimes? 

I hate to admit that I often question the assignments God gives me. I tend to look at them to be less in comparison to the plans I have made for myself. Often God’s plans for me are less glamourous, require hard work, seem heavy to carry, and tend to leave less time for “me”.  

But here is the thing… 

God doesn’t look at life the way we do.  It will always be impossible for flesh to master holy things. I often have trouble wrapping my mind around God’s way of thinking and come up short figuring out just how to do holy work. God’s ways are just so far above mine. Higher callings often require me to lay down my fleshly objectives. Taking hold of the plans God has for me will mean I will have to lay down more of mine. 

I’m learning that the most important God work I will ever be called to do will require me to do some unpleasant things. The special assignments he has designed for me will feel heavy to carry at times and are often the ones that feel forced upon me and not the ones I quickly volunteer for. They are also the assignments that will also require me to sometimes help those the world considers to be less deserving. 

I will often feel unqualified for God assignments and I won’t always look glamorous by the world’s standards doing them. The very messages he will give me to share will be the ones I will have to humbly walk through.

While I sometimes find myself busy making religious plans, He is busy crafting holy assignments wrapped up in small life moments.  Moments filled with his presence that I will miss if I don’t keep my eyes on Jesus.  Unexpected and unqualified are divine setups for God to show up and show himself mighty on my behalf. 

Simon didn’t start that holy day planning to carry the cross for Jesus. If you take a close look, many of the great assignments we so talk about from scripture were seemingly unplanned and unexpected too. 

I imagine Daniel had no idea that morning that by afternoon he would spend his evening in a hungry lion’s den. But I can’t see Daniel sitting around all night crying, “Lord, why did you let this happen to me. I pray three times a day and I haven’t failed by worshipping other gods.”

Joseph didn’t have time to prepare for the pit and being led off to slavery that eventful day.  But he didn’t sit in his cell planning out revenge and then let his family starve. Instead, he extended them grace and kept them alive and well during the famine.

I don’t imagine Stephen even gave it a thought of being stoned the morning of his last day on earth. But he stood ready to his last breath to give his testimony to a lost and dying world. 

All assignments that we’re forced upon some unlikely participants in some life-sized God assignments to bring God glory, show his great provision, and convict the hearts of those lost and without God. These are what true God assignments will look like.

So, friend, do you feel life has forced some things upon you? Take heart.

Do you feel called out from the crowd? Take courage.

Are you facing much harder things than you envisioned for yourself? Then lean in.

Take courage and be of good cheer. 

Simon was unexpectantly forced to carry a great weight that day but look at what an honor it turned out to be.  His name is forever written in scripture and changed. I believe not only did his life change because of that one very important assignment but also the lives of his children, Alexander and Rufus. 

Simon didn’t just carry that cross that day to Golgotha Hill and let it fall.  He layed it down after he finished his assignment and forever set the example for us to follow.

We too have to take up our cross and follow Jesus. We too have to help carry the weight for others. We too have to set the example to do holy things. Even the unplanned and the ones thrust upon us.

But we have a promise, they will be the most honorable things to do and they will render great reward. 

So unexpected, yes.

Forced upon us, so it may seem.

Unplanned, never. God works all things together for good so holy things are never truly unplanned. 

See you in the Field,

Susan