Holy Guacamole, did you guys see The Good Wife this week???

Agh.

I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t watched yet. But let’s just say this was one of the few plot twists that’s made me grab my laptop to search for what on EARTH the show’s writers were thinking.  And what I found was a great explanation that was totally satisfying – both in terms of the show, and as I think about life in general. Here’s what they said:

“[T]here are major story hubs you’re always looking for in building a season: points in the narrative where it changes every character’s trajectory. It keeps the show from feeling stale. Earlier this season that turning point was Alicia and Cary leaving the firm and starting their own offices. This is the second hub. [This new development] will impact the show down to its core, it spins every character off in a new direction. And we were excited to see where everybody landed.”

Think back over the past 5 years:

What were the one or two things that changed everything for you? What surprising turn of events spun you (and perhaps others) off in a new direction? Where did you land? What happened next?

I’ve had a few life spin-offs.  And with each one, when life stops spinning (which usually takes about 2 years) things are more interesting than they were before. God launches me (and the friends and family who are part of each particular spin) out in circumstances that are simultaneously more demanding and more generous than where we were before. It keeps life from feeling stale. It’s a good thing.

It’s also ugly and painful and hard.

Loss hurts. I hate goodbyes and endings. As I imagined adulthood when I was a child, I thought life would be steady and constant and set. I’ve been trying to get to that place for as along as I can remember.  Last night, reading this explanation from The Good Wife‘s show runners made me realize there’s no there, there, in my imaginary life. Stagnant is not good. Life changes and often in ways we don’t see coming.  (and yes, I know this is all silly drivel I should have realized YEARS ago, but it’s hitting me now).

We may not be living the kind of casually elegant/importantly busy/productively brilliant lives we imagine when Oprah prompts us to imagine our “best life now.” As a writer, I’m not even generating the sh*tty first drafts Anne Lamott insists are so important.  God spins us off, and up and over and around, and we have a chance to pull back into our best approximation of who we thought we were…or we can respond to God and see what happens next.

It reminds me of something Steve talked about on Sunday. He preached at our Faith Gathering. He talked about living in truth, and how, when life isn’t going the way we expect, we are tempted to revert to who we used to be.  When Jesus was about to be crucified, Peter denied ever knowing him, and after he died, the other disciples went back to being fishermen. What else were they going to do?  Reversion feels like our only choice when our hopes are dashed.  And yet…God has something more in mind.  A new plot line, so to speak, if we’re willing to play it out in all it’s messy glory.

It probably WON’T be casually elegant/importantly busy/productively brilliant, at  least not simultaneously, or for more than three days at a stretch. But it will be interesting and surprising and purposeful…and if we let it, if we pay attention, there will be delights there that surprise us beyond our losses.