When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn

Ruth is one of my most cherished friends, and an encourager who inspires me to live with intention every day. She began sharing her artwork on social media while searching for God’s grace laced throughout her days. As an artist, she knows no detail is too small to be overlooked. She applies the same care and attention to her everyday life knowing that God is present in even the most mundane moments. Her new book The Way of the Wildflower, Ruth shows how to live freely and release your burdens with gospel meditations that turn your focus to the God who cares deeply for you. As our attention is pulled this way and that, Ruth’s work continually causes me to pause and set my gaze on what is truly important. The lessons she’s gleaned from navigating the unexpected are a gift ot us all. It’s my true joy to welcome my dear sister, Ruth, to the farm’s table today.

Guest post by Ruth Chou Simons

My third-oldest son was three weeks into his freshman year of college when his life took an unexpected turn.

A Saturday morning mountain bike ride with his older brother ended suddenly when he went over his handlebars and landed on his head.

While his helmet saved his life, he suffered broken ribs and crushed vertebrae throughout his spine. His spinal fusion surgery was successful, but not before we endured an agonizing scare where the neurosurgeon feared the worst due to the complications in surgery. Several hours later, we were relieved to find our son fully capable of wiggling his fingers and toes. 

One moment, our son was enjoying a Saturday off campus, and the next moment, he was bravely entering surgery and hoping to still walk afterward.

How quickly life can take an unexpected turn. 

I can report as of this writing that God is faithful; our son is on a promising healing journey.

But as I write from my heart here, I can say with fresh insight: Life can change in an instant. 

The natural response to an unexpected trial, challenge, or change in plans is often fear. I can certainly confirm this to be true.

What will happen to me?

How will I make it?

“Fear is one of our natural responses because we are finite human beings with limited understanding.“

What if I can’t handle this?

Has God abandoned me?

We ask these questions when change knocks at the door with an unforeseen diagnosis, and we find ourselves reeling from the implications. We struggle with fear when change comes in the form of the deep and painful loss of a child or after years of infertility and the struggle to start a family. Maybe the loss is in a marriage, when we imagine a lifetime of happiness and find that expectation cut short either in time or togetherness. Or perhaps fear sets in when the unexpected turn is the loss of a dream we have worked toward, and the goal we’ve been aiming for is derailed. 

Fear is one of our natural responses because we are finite human beings with limited understanding. We’re caught flat-footed and shortsighted when life takes a turn, and grief mingles with shock in a complicated mélange of emotions. These are the unwanted and unexpected detours of life. The Bible is filled with stories of God’s people encountering twists and turns that often made no sense to them:

“God is by nature faithful and unfailing, yet he never asks for our trust without first declaring his trustworthiness.“

• The Israelites’ forty years in the desert.
• Joseph’s years in the dungeon.
• Ruth’s and Naomi’s widowhoods.
• The death of Jesus and later many of his disciples.
• When Saul was struck blind on the Damascus road.

Just to name a few.

We fear what we don’t understand. We fear what’s not in our control. Is it any wonder that the phrase “Do not be afraid” is one of the most common phrases in the Bible?

Here’s how God offered assurance to Israel. He gave a command and a promise: 

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

“Do not be frightened” is a command—the verse literally starts with “Have I not commanded you?” This is a clear instruction to God’s people to choose to trust in him. 

“The Lord your God is with you wherever you go” is an active promise. He says it to make the point: “I promise to take care of you.”

God clearly knows how prone his children are to fear and how much they need to know his faithfulness in the midst of the unexpected and unwanted turns in life. God is by nature faithful and unfailing, yet he never asks for our trust without first declaring his trustworthiness.

“It may not feel like a mercy in the moment, but God is too kind to grant a life of ease if it means we will miss out on a life of dependence on him.“

So amid circumstances that take us off the path of predictability and self-satisfaction—in the unexpected plot twists that strip away our false senses of accomplishment and security—God invites us to trust him.

He promises to take care of us.

It may not feel like a mercy in the moment, but God is too kind to grant a life of ease if it means we will miss out on a life of dependence on him. After all, God’s desire is for his people to love him, trust him, and worship him as their faithful God.

The running storyline of redemption from the beginning illustrates his pursuit of our trust and reliance on him:

• God makes us, in his image, for a relationship with him.
• God desires our worship, surrender, and fellowship.
• Humanity rejects his provision and trusts themselves instead.
• God shows himself faithful and continues to prove his trustworthiness when he sends Jesus to earth.
• Jesus gives us access to fellowship and wholehearted worship of God when we trust him for our salvation.

Do you see it?

God delights in proving himself trustworthy.

He calls us to set aside anxious fear in the midst of our plot twists because he promises to be with us everywhere we go—even into the unknowns of our unexpected. Friend, we ultimately need not fear what we face in life (or death!) because Jesus has secured our eternal welcome in the presence of God.

Because of Jesus, we are never outside of his care. 

Remember this declaration when life takes an unexpected turn:

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)

Nothing can separate us from God’s trustworthy provision.

We will worship God and fellowship with him freely forever, just as we were made to do from the very beginning. Can any unexpected turn in your life derail you from God’s care and presence? Not a chance! 

The God who wants his people to lean into his trustworthiness instead of fear is the same loving Father who made a way for his children never to experience separation from his care.

Whatever you’re facing today, he remains with you.

He remains trustworthy.

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