Article August 19, 2013 Issue

Surprise me!

Steve Cole

One day I was visiting a local restaurant for lunch. From behind the counter, people are served hot dishes or sandwiches “made to order” and listed on a menu overhead. After getting the food I wanted, I went to the end of the line to pay the cashier. I don’t know why, but I asked her: “What was the best sandwich you ever had here?” She told me that the best sandwich was the one she got when she said to the cook, “Surprise me.”

Later, the thought occurred to me: I wonder if I could pray like that? How about just saying to God, “Surprise me,” and leaving it at that. What would happen? Since then I have tried this, and am happy to report that it works! By that I mean, when I leave all completely in God’s hands, a door will open in thought that I didn’t even know was there to knock on. After all, there must be endless thoughts and ideas that the infinite Mind has for us that are not on the limited menu of possibilities the human mind conceives for itself.

But is treating God like a short order cook really appropriate? Well, didn’t Jesus say, referring to God as the source, “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matthew 7:7)? The Lord’s Prayer is partly a prayer of this kind of asking. And there are many other places in the Bible where God is asked to impart specific things, like wisdom, as in the case of Solomon (see II Chronicles 1:7–12) or a change of heart, as when the Psalmist asks God to “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way” (Psalms 119:37).