…the unexpected praise or apology, the one that comes out of the blue, can change everything.  Seth Godin

Has someone ever done something for you that was unexpected?  You just didn’t see it coming?  And when they did it left a lasting positive imprint on your soul?

Words of affirmation are my love language and so I can think of a few times when for no particular real reason or occasion, I got a note or email from someone to thank me or recognize my contribution to their lives.

These little notes and meaningful words have built me up, encouraged me, helped me to be stronger and more confident.  Such a little thing, really, but so big in terms of the impact.  And I can think of times when I have messed up really bad and have been forgiven freely, lifting the weight of shame and guilt.

Bless

I’ve typically thought of these acts as ways that people bless me or ways that I can bless others.  The word bless gets used in many ways and I wonder if it’s lost the best of its significance. What are we really talking about when we talk about blessing others or receiving a blessing?

Jesus said, “Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also.”

Didn’t expect that.

Unexpected

Perhaps there are some clues in this teaching.  What if blessing someone goes deeper and is more impacting than simply being nice, or not returning bad with bad?  Maybe inherent in blessing someone is an element of the unexpected.

When someone treats us badly, the path of least resistance is at best to ignore that person and at worst to return the mistreatment back at them. Either of these responses would be expected.  However, to bless someone who has mistreated us means to respond in an unexpected way.

Jesus goes on to further illustrate the practice of blessing as doing the unexpected:

If someone grabs your shirt, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it. [That’s unexpected!] If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.”

Do That Thing No One Saw Coming

Live generously, live in unexpected ways.  Go the extra mile.  Do that thing no one saw coming.

I’m challenged afresh to think of ways that I can bless others by doing something completely unexpected.   It doesn’t even have to be huge.

Blessing others is so much more than just being nice, kind, and polite. That is expected.  Or at least it should be. If I truly desire to bless others, then I want to think about how I can do something unexpected, even surprising, that catches them off guard. Or maybe even blows their socks off.

Life can be so mundane, messed up and broken.  Just think for a minute what could happen in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities if we would use a little holy imagination to bless others in unexpected ways.

Live Questionable Lives

These unexpected acts may even cause them to inquire about why.  Why would you take the time?  What makes you care?  Why?  This could change everything.

For me,  the answer points back to the unexpected love of God shown towards me that I then pass along to others.

With God, the unexpected goes so much deeper, wider and more extreme.  Even in our most broken, lost, ignoring -God -state, God goes all out to reach out to us not once, but over and over.  I don’t have to have my act together to be loved and accepted and wholly embraced.  In a world where so much of our value and worth is determined by what we do or don’t do and who we are, that’s unexpected! I’m asking myself how can I pay that kind of unexpected love forward to others?

So may we each grow increasingly aware of the ways we’ve been recipients of the unexpected, that we can, in turn, give the completely unexpected to others.  And, may God bless you (watch out for the unexpected!)

Photo by Sebastián León Prado on Unsplash