Do you expect the unexpected? 😧

Can you imagine the embarrassment and shock Joseph experienced when he received the news of his fiancée’s pregnancy? He must have felt such anger at this ultimate betrayal. His virgin girlfriend was with child but not just any child. She came to him with a wild story of an angel, a promise, and the presence of God.

I can only imagine Joseph’s response: “Are you crazy? That’s the stupidest story I’ve ever heard. Who’s going to believe you? We’ll be the laughingstock of our village. We’ll never live this down.”

What would you have done? How would you have felt? The Bible tells us Joseph was going to take the high road: “Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately.” (Matthew 1:19, NET) The unexpected can sometimes throw us for a loop. It certainly put Joseph in a bad spot. 

When was the last time you were tested by challenging news? My mentor once told me that I don’t live with the facts of my life but with the interpretation of the facts of my life. Wow, that still makes me pause after every bit of “bad” news. Maybe it’s not bad news after all—maybe it’s actually the answer to a thousand years of prayer. 

Joseph did what any devout Jew would do—he prayed. And God sent him a dream: “But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’” (Matthew 1:20, NKJV)

The focus of Advent is all about reinterpreting life. It’s all about preparing for the unexpected. So would you join me in preparing our lives for the second coming of Christ? Would you clean out of your life any hurtful or bitter seeds that may have developed roots? Would you forgive those who have hurt you and ask God to forgive you, too?

Don’t forget you cannot control everything that happens to you, but you can be more prepared for the unexpected. 

You’re a miracle.

Your friend, 

Paul Marc Goulet