Sometimes life is like that. We would be walking leisurely, serene, and happy. We may have some expectations, calculations, hopes, sense of reality, and so on.
Unexpectedly, a vehicle or something of that sort collides with us and we are knocked out. We are left with bruises and wounds.
This was not something that we expected. We never desired it. But that was what happened. We call it the ‘Unexpected.’
Life is full of unexpected occurrences. It keeps waiting for us with many surprises. When this waiting becomes a collision, unexpected things happen.
When everything happens as we expect, life is a monotony. It is like a student who arranges his school bag with books according to the timetable of the next day. He is happy to keep the books of his favorite subjects – English, Malayalam, and social science.
But on the next day, in the absence of the Malayalam teacher, the mathematics teacher whom he does not like comes in. This is what is called the ‘unexpected.’ It takes time to adapt to the unexpected. The mind will not be ready to cope with the new. It is not easy to rearrange our thoughts and memories according to the new circumstance.
Unexpected things happen in the lives of everyone. But the responses will be different. The response to winning a lottery is not the same as the response to a heart attack. Great excitement for the first one and immense shock for the second one.
Both are unexpected occurrences. But we react to these two in two different ways. Both these happenings change our lives in two very different ways.
A normal person cannot come out of such a situation. Some people will be able to thank God for the unexpected boons. But how many of us can see the hands of God in unexpected disasters? Loss of job, financial crisis, business failure, chronic disease, separation… the list is long.
Death is the surest thing in life. Yet we find death as an unexpected experience. Why does death become a great shock? Although it is unexpected for us, for God it is not unexpected. That is the reason why God has asked us to stay prepared in every moment of our lives.
When we write the word ‘unexpected’, it is a relief that there is ‘expect’ in that word. It is like finding water as we dig the earth. Something hopeful is in every unexpected happening.
We need to prepare our minds to accept every unexpected occurrence. The darkness that fills our mind when something we do not desire happens is a thousand times greater than that which affects us when something we expect does not happen.
A last question: How will you react when something unexpected happens in your life?
