Why are we Surprised?

Surprised. Surprised by what? You ever wonder why it is that people get surprised by anything? I’ve heard is said countless times: ‘Expect the unexpected;’ but even then you cannot control the reaction you sustain when something surprising happens.

The typical male American hero is a man not surprised by anything. When an explosion happens just behind the greased up and ripped dude, he doesn’t move a muscle. When people die he turns into an overly pragmatist with a touch of stoic realism: ‘people die, life happens,’ and he moves on,

Well we all know that the movie man is not real, we hurt when people die, we wet our pants when explosions happen, and on average, we’re ‘over-weight’ and not terribly good looking. We surprise fairly easy actually. Take, for example, the singer Susan Boyle. Susan was a contestant in Britain’s Got Talent, the British version of American Idle (really it is the other way around). The Scotswoman stepped onto the stage before a young audience wearing a 70ish stay-at-home-mom dress and overall she was not an externally captivating woman; however, as soon as she began to sing everybody’s jaw dropped and by the end she was met with a standing ovation and much praise from her judges. Why was the world shocked by this? Mainly it is because she looked like she fell off the boring bus 3 decades ago and has been lost ever since. Her demeanor projected a certain precedent but her abilities shattered that precedent: she did not fit her mold. This is the basic reason why we get shocked: when someone or something breaks out of its expected norm of behavior. Why are we shocked when a baby says momma for the first time? We’ve heard hundreds of people say momma, I can say momma and no one cares; it is that the baby was not supposed to say any coherent word yet. Guys, why are we surprised when ugly dude (2) lands a beautiful wife (10), because that is not how things are supposed to work, dude messed up the number scale.

Well here are some things to be shocked but not surprised by:

--People doing evil things to other people. You want evidence that people are generally bad, look at babies. You take something they want away they’ll scream, crap their pants, hit and refuse to eat until they get it. Why should we not be surprised; people are evil, we live under an actual curse where we want to and do . . . do wrong (somewhere 8th grade boys are giggling).

--People doing nice things to other people. Even though we’re all evil, we are still made in God’s image and though the mirror is broken we still got some pieces that rightly reflect who he is. So just because the lady at the store smiles and forgives you when you cuss at her baby who wont shut up, doesn’t mean she loves God, rather there are some things that she can let go.

--People claiming they’ve found complete contentment in life. Don’t trust `em, seriously. Life sucks, even in the bubble of the United States, and if someone says that they are okay with life they are either clinically crazy, so sheltered an infant would be shocked, or a cult leader. Granted people can have pockets of contentment, but seriously, keep one good eye on that person. The world is broken down and bleeding, we can laugh and cry; be happy and want to kill our self all in the same day: the world was not supposed to be this way. There is a difference between saying you’re content, living an island life-style throwing back margaritas and being content because you know that one day you get to push the ejection button out of this mess.

--People doing heroic things. There are plenty of principles people live by that are inches away from Christ, but, as the saying goes, a miss is as good as a mile. It takes something special to be brave, and not many have it. However we must remember that we can gain the whole world but still lose our soul.

--God being who he says he is. Hope you don’t miss this one. I get mad when people don’t answer me as soon as I like; I get overexcited when my team wins; I get the blues on occasion; I cry when I really hurt; I laugh at jokes; I have goals and desires and life will crush me, but I will not be surprised when I meet God. He will be much greater than I imagined, much more than I imagined and I’ll be surprised by that, but I will not be surprised that he is good, that he is full of justice, and that I’ll be pardoned of all my wrong simply because I believe that what Jesus did is true.