'bumps in the road'

Certainly Abraham was not expecting that God would command him to make a burnt offering of his son, Isaac (Genesis 22). I doubt that Joseph expected that, when he ran out to find his brothers that they would throw him into a cistern and then sell him into slavery (Genesis 37). Don’t you think that Moses was pretty surprised when he returned from Mt. Sinai, having spent time in the presence of Yahweh, to see that his people had created an idol to worship (Exodus 32)? We know that Job had no reason to believe that his life was about to be put to a supernatural test (Job 2). Or Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego, did they see a fiery furnace in the cards for them (Daniel 3). Hosea must have been caught off guard when God directed him to love his adulterous wife again (Hosea 3). Habakkuk the prophet is exasperated by the idea that God would allow a godless people such as the Babylonians to decimate the Israelites, God’s chosen people (Habakkuk 1). The people of Israel were expecting a political revolutionary as a messiah, not the baby of a carpenter (Luke 2). Certainly this was a bit of a fiasco; a bump in the road you might say.
Here’s the thing about these accounts in the Bible, we see them all playing out well in the end for the characters involved and for the glory of God in the end. However, this is not the case for these people in the moments following their trials. Moses didn’t know that his potential sacrifice of his son Isaac was a prelude to Jesus’ death on the cross. The three still go tossed into the furnace. The Babylonians captured the Israelites. I doubt there was much consolation or perspective on a greater purpose for those that died in Babylonian captivity. We read that the disciples were out of sorts as to what to make of Jesus’ death. We have the luxury of looking at these individuals’ circumstances, not only of their whole lives, but as they fit into the entire narrative of God reconciling humanity to Himself.
And so it is with our lives. We have certain ideas and expectations about how it will all play out, probably not to the smallest detail, but definitely broader themes. Generally, we have life aspirations that, we hope, attach us to God’s greater plan for reconciliation. However, these are likely on our terms. They incorporate a measure of our own confidence, comfort, and choice. What then, are we to do when the unexpected happens? When God’s plan for how my life will attribute to His great plan? Maybe I thought I would be married. Maybe I thought I would find a certain kind of job. Perhaps I was expecting that I would live a life of sufficient financial means. When these things don’t go as we’d planned, it is easy to feel that God has somehow forgotten us and that our lives are careening off the tracks. And maybe they are (Romans 9:22-23)! But let us not forget that our lives, too, fit into a much bigger narrative than what we can see or understand. And the ‘bumps’ in the lives of believers in Jesus are likely the things that define us as His.
What then should be our mode of operation? Hebrews 11 recounts many saints in Christian history who were so because of their faith in God. The chapter ends with this. ‘These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.’ Let this not be a trite offering of ‘just have more faith’ to any who are experiencing the unexpected. Rather, may it be a call to remember that your life is glorifying to God in as much as it fits into the entire narrative of God reconciling humanity to Himself. In that sense, may all of us encountering life’s unexpected bumps respond by anticipating nothing more than God’s will be done with our lives.