Expect It When You Least Expect It: The Nature of Life

I recall the playing of practical jokes as a young guy where, if you were on the receiving end, you’d say, ‘Expect it back when you least expect it.’

There’s a lesson in diligence right below through the pen of Balthasar Gracian. He says:

“Have no careless Days... Fate loves to play tricks, and will heap up chances to catch us unawares. Our intelligence, prudence, and courage, even our beauty, must always be ready for trial. For their day of careless trust will be that of their discredit.

“Care always fails just when it was most wanted. It is thoughtlessness that trips us up into destruction. Accordingly it is a piece of military strategy to put perfection to its trial when unprepared. The days of parade are known and are allowed to pass by, but the day is chosen when least expected so as to put valour to the severest test.”

We need to be at our best as much as we can. But the fact is some days we have our share of luck and some we don’t. For those who purport we make our own luck, there is an element of truth, but it doesn’t hold 100 percent.

Warren Buffet once said, “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” We don’t think cautiously enough as we venture through the various seasons of life. We deal effectively for years and then without warning we venture, at times inexplicably, from the good road.

When we think about it, tests and trials that come when things aren’t going well--to test the strength of our systems, are not all bad so long as we’re prepared to learn from the lessons revealed.

And when we survive tests that come without warning there is a double touch of satisfaction because we triumphed in genuine duress, and we can be appropriately and quietly confident in future similar situations. This is provided we continue to ‘expect it when we least expect it.’

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.