The Road Not Wanted

      What do you do when God throws you a curve ball?  When something comes along that changes your future dramatically? And no matter how often I pretend its not true, or that it only happens to others, it happens to us all: illness, injury, job loss, divorce, death of a loved one,betrayal, abandonment.. I have thought  that I would handle these things with skill and aplomb. No matter how much we plan or prepare or envision our future, its always different than what we expected. And i am not as good at dealing with things as I naively thought I would be.
     I've been lucky, or blessed or cursed, depending on your point of view. My life has been pretty much of a smooth sail.  Sure there have been storms, high winds and crashing waves, but no hurricanes and no damage to my ship. I've stayed pretty close to the course I picked out for myself. I like to know where I am going and I've been heading in that direction. I don't really like surprises, unless its something I already want and the surprise is the timing of getting it. 
        But God has surprises up His sleeve for me. Frankly, I don't like it. They are not in my hopes, dreams, plans or even imaginings. He's been doing this to me quite a bit in recent years, taking me off of all the roads I knew about and thought I might travel down. He's set my feet on completely unknown, and unexpected paths. I was a track and streets runner and He puts me on a mountain trail.  I was a road bike racer and He puts me on a single track downhill course.  I was a pool swimmer and He puts me in a rushing river. In other words, something I am not prepared for. I guess I didn't really believe that He was serious about being in charge, being the captain of my ship.
       The challenge for me is to respond  in  ways that I think please God. I am grateful that He doesn't get angry with me when I complain about these curve balls and strange paths to Him .He doesn't care if I rant and rave to Him about my feelings.  David did that all the time and the Bible calls him a man after God's heart. So complaining is not an issue unless i stop there and camp out in my complaints. I don't really want to do that.
      So I have been exercising my faith in His character and love.  Exercise is a good word for this process because its not a static thing.  Its a regular, weekly, daily, sometimes hourly and minute by minute choice. Sometimes it hurts and sometimes its difficult to do but this is my response. God is still God even when I don't know what the next hour, day , or week will bring.
     "But I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that  which I 've commited to Him  until that day." 1 Timothy 1 :12(emphasis mine)