predictably unpredictable

Today I, because of something silly, I had to contemplate what I like the most about my job. I realize that besides the obvious (I love serving Jesus and his people) the thing I like the most is that it is so predictably unpredictable. This suits me well.

I have written many times to lament things that make my heart ache as a single woman in her mid-thirties but I rarely celebrate that fact. Now, you might be thinking…ummmm Linda, you just drastically changed the subject but not really. You see the thing I like about my singleness is it gives me complete leave to be predictably unpredictable as well.

On my job I never know what a day will bring. Something’s are very predictable. Certain clients will yell at me every day, certain children will grasp my legs each time I walk by. One of the maintenance men will call me “Songbird” and ask me to sing for him every time I stroll pasted. A pair of sisters who are a fixture here will answer, “I’m still here,” when I ask them how they are doing. There are many things that are totally predictable about my job and yet, no two days are EVER remotely the same.

Today I have laughed so many times. I had to laugh when a coworker saw me standing on the sidewalk in front of the building talking to a client because he asked me if I had ever made it inside. He had seen me two hours before in the same place doing the thing that I do best, talking to a client. I had to laugh again when I got into a war of stubbornness with the client who always yells at me. I laughed because I won. I laughed again as I sat in my office listening to our sweet and faithful receptionist, Sam, have a conversation with a client who tends to experience things no one else really sees about a parade that she thought she saw. I giggled in my office when I hear Sam say in response to the clients question of where they were going, “Maybe you should just try marching along with them and find out.” Only at the mission. J There’s never a dull moment and you never know what will happen.

It fits me. I like the unpredictability.

In my life, I feel the same. Sometimes, I need to just run away for a day or to and savor some silence, and I can. I don’t really need to ask anyone permission. Sometimes my bestie who live two states away is just having a rough week and I need to hop into the car and go see a movie with her. I can do that too. There is really very little in my life to hold me back.

If I decided tomorrow that the Lord was directing me to move to Zimbabwe in six months or three months or one month, there would be very little to stop me in that.

I am a hopelessly free spirit and today as the sun shines and I want to spin around on a mountain top and sing “the hills are alive with the sound of music” or cruise with my windows down, hair flying and radio cranked I am celebrating that fact that I CAN.

The Lord has given me the beautiful gift of an unpredictable life. Sometimes it seems rather mundane, get up, shower, work, run, sleep and repeat. Then there are times where it is anything but predictable as I randomly drive to the beach or to Chicago just because.

I don’t need a babysitter, I don’t need to ask my husband, I just go.

I don’t want to get so captivated with the grass on the other side of the fence, that I forget to celebrate my own, lovely, grassy field.

My grass is beautiful, its uniquely mine.

And I want to be content on this side of the fence, as long as Jesus keeps me here.

More than that, I want to LOVE this side of the fence. I want to thrive on this side of the fence.

I want to use the gift of my predictably unpredictable life to be the best employee, friend, daughter, aunt, sister and woman that I can possibly be.