I spent some happy times on our vacation this week tooling around on this ridiculous purple bicycle. I know there are all kinds of metaphors just waiting for me in this, and I’ll dig them out eventually. (Expect to read about the Purple Huffy in a book someday down the road.) But for now, I’m floating on the surface of the experience – the fun of the rides, the giggles Steve and I shared as pedestrians gaped & stared because we looked so silly, and the surprise of enjoying something unexpected. (If you’d asked me a week ago if I’d want to bike as part of my vacation, the answer would have been an emphatic NO.)

I haven’t read C.S. Lewis’ book, Surprised by Joy, but the title kept coming to mind as I pedaled: around the beach, to the store, to a fab new restaurant with gorgeous views and half-price drinks at happy hour (I’d bike from Cambridge for a Carribbean Cosmo – so delicious!), running into my high school friend Brian who runs the place.

I’d reached a point in my life where I felt like not much could surprise me – or if it did, it was because something went worse than I’d anticipated. It was a horrible mindset I couldn’t seem to shake.

But in three short days, God recalibrated me, reminding me of all the good surprises out there that He’s placing in my path. They’re just waiting for me to bump into them. Now I know to look, to ask God every morning, “What’s fun today? What is today’s purple bike?”