“I decided to walk out to the edge of the sea and head north to look for seals, knowing that if I did that, and whether I saw seals or not, all kinds of other things would cross my path. I knew that, because they always do. “ – Jim Crumley, The Nature of Autumn, page 30.
I’ve discovered a fascinating new-to-me author in Jim Crumley, Scottish nature writer. It’s probably no surprise to anyone who knows me that I would find much to enjoy in a narrative of landscape and nature. I find it both thought-provoking and relaxing, and if I were prone to highlighting in my books (which I am very much not), much of the entire book would have been marked up. This specific passage caught my attention because of his open-minded expectations. His primary focus and goal was to see seals, but if he didn’t, the journey would still be a success as long as something crossed his path. His expectation was only to see something.
I was thinking about this in relation first to prayer, and secondly the Lord’s work in the lives of individuals in general. When we pray for the Lord to intervene in our lives and the lives of those around us, we often have a particular idea of what that should look like. We’re looking for something specific. When the answer, the intervention, the providence doesn’t line up with our expectations, sometimes we can overlook it entirely, or dismiss it.
This was a good reminder to me to hold those expectations loosely. The Lord does answer, and He does work in our lives. In His infinite wisdom, infinite knowledge, and infinite love, the timing and specifics of those answers and works are different from my ideas of what’s best. When there’s a variance between my ideas and His, it’s always my ideas that need to change. That always brings me back to Psalm 69:13: “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”