Expect the Unexpected
Kelly Sankowski
I am naturally a planner, and for a good portion of my young adulthood I sought to plan every chapter of my life. I pained myself trying to discern what God’s will was – what job I was supposed to take, when I was supposed to get married, where I would live, and how many children I would have.
Two surprise children and a couple of moves later, I’ve become comfortable with not knowing. Or, rather, I know with certainty that I cannot know ahead of time, but I sometimes still try to. In those moments, I remind myself of the motto of the Sisters of Charity, some of whom I met on a spring break trip to the US/Mexico Border – “Do what presents itself.”
These sisters arrived at the border expecting to do one thing, but quickly pivoted to opening a clinic for families of children with special needs after they saw a need for that in their community. They did not need to know ahead of time exactly what God’s plan was for them, they just had to keep their eyes open for the needs in front of them and listen to the movement of the Spirit within them.
This is the thing that most consistently sticks with me as I have read the story of the Annunciation time and time again: Mary’s ability to gracefully embrace the unexpected. One day, she is an ordinary teenager in Nazareth, preparing for the next logical life milestone: betrothal to an older man. Then, suddenly, an angel appears to her, and nothing is ever the same. With the exception of the fact that Joseph remained a part of her life, all other ideas she had about what her future would look like must have gone out the window in that instant. God was presenting her with a path forward, and it was up to her to embrace it with courage or to retreat and hold onto her own plans instead.
Most of us will not have angels come to us and tell us God’s plan. And we might not always get it right. But I have come to find that God simply asks us to pay attention to opportunities to serve others in our own lives, and to be ready to say “yes” when the Spirit nudges us to fill a need with our own time, love, and talent.
Kelly Sankowski is a freelance writer and editor focused on amplifying the voices of women in the Church. She lives in Toledo, Ohio with her husband and two sons. You can read more of her work on her website or subscribe to her substack.
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