Katie Krombein's Reviews > Unexpected: Leave Fear Behind, Move Forward in Faith, Embrace the Adventure

p. 23: But as unexpected as unexpected is, we need to remember that our unexpected is never unexpected to God. God knew this day would come in my life and he was already in this day waiting for me. Fear was trying to grip me like it naturally does when we receive any bad news, but I knew I couldn’t let it overwhelm me.

p. 27+ I had learned that we either feed fear or we feed faith, and that I had the power to choose which one I would feed. …But I soon discovered that God was not going to supernaturally deliver me from this. He was going to walk me through it.

p. 32+: I’m thankful that because of the unexpected, who I am today is different from the Christine I was a few years ago. ..I do wish it hadn’t happened, but I wouldn’t want to go back to who I was before it happened. I belief it’s time for us to get good at navigating the unexpected, to embrace and understand that through unexpected occurrences in life—both good and bad—we need to trust God, anticipating him to move in it while he moves us through it. We need to realize that he never expected us to live boring and predictable lives, even though we work hard to create regular routines. He’s called us to live lives full of joys and sorrows, battles and celebrations, successes and failures, ups and downs. And he wants us to learn how to live expecting to gain from the unexpected, especially as the world grows ever more chaotic and unpredictable.

p. 33. No matter what kind of bubble we try to construct to manage our safety and security—physically, financially, or spiritually—trials and tribulations are going to come just as Jesus warned us. And, in our humanness, we will try to control everything—including God. Yet, we serve a God who refuses to be controlled by us. That’s because part of the mystery and the adventure of following Jesus is to trust him no matter what is going on around us. To keep our hearts completely open to him, so that when the unexpected happens, he can use it for our good. To free him to use the unexpected, a necessary catalyst, to grow us, sanctify us, and help us see life with a whole new perspective, because nothing grows without disruption and interruption—without the unexpected. If we could get this truth deeply woven into the fabric of our being, we would be far less fearful in a world that is complex and ever-changing. We could relax in knowing that while we cannot expect to control the unexpected, God is in control of everything and therefore we can expect that he will be faithful to the promises he has given us in his Word.

p. 42: But fear is not from God, and it’s not more powerful than God. He knew it would come to steal our peace, not once or twice, but constantly throughout our lives. So, in his great mercy and faithfulness to us, God made a way for us to be more than equipped to overcome its effects and walk in faith. He gave us three offensive weapons to lean into when we’re attacked: ‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind’ (2 Timothy 1:7). This verse clearly shows us that fear is a spirit, but it’s not from God. Every time fear tries to grip us, it’s the enemy trying to take us down and terrify us out of trusting God. But the spirit of fear is no match for the Spirit of God who lives inside us. God’s Spirit is the source of our power. We can rely on, draw on and walk in peace in the midst of fear and anxiety because the God who is in us is greater than anything or anyone that comes against us.

p. 43: When we rely on the Holy Spirit, we can take heart, because we are not fighting alone. We fight the good fight of faith, in God’s power, not by focusing on fear and trying to defeat it in our own strength, but by relying on God, knowing he is faithful. I came to realize that the more I trust my heavenly Father, the more fear is defeated in my heart and in my mind. If I focus on God more than the unexpected circumstance, then it is God who will be biggest in my heart and mind, and peace will be my outcome.

p. 44: Adrian and Jayne drew on what they needed for the moment, because trusting God is a process—a series of choices—not a one-time event. It’s the ongoing journey called life. It’s a cycle we repeat daily, hourly, sometimes even minute to minute, that leads to consistent growth. We overcome, get peace, but then get hit with another unexpected blow. But each time we go through the cycle, we grow stronger and more mature.

p. 52: They let God be God in their lives.

p. 55: “I think you can learn from fear instead of letting it affect you,” Jayne said. “It’s like learning to escape a riptide current. We always taught our children that if they got caught in one at the beach to not panic and fight it, but swim parallel with it because it will eventually end and you can escape and swim back to shore. Yes, we resist fear, but the way we fight it is to learn from it by first facing it so it loses its paralyzing effect. We recognize it for what it is and somehow let God grow us in the midst of it. And when we do, he’ll help us get back to shore.”

p. 64: As the years go by, and we wait for our dreams to come to pass, it takes courage: to keep trusting God, to keep our hearts open and tender, and to keep risking and trying again. …disappointment is inevitably going to happen to all of us, because the enemy is going to make sur ewe get hit by at least a few unexpected blows that knock us off our feet. He’s going to do whatever he can to stop our hopes for the best and to start our expectations for the worst. He’s going to reinforce the belief that if we step out and risk our heart again, people will fail us again. …disappointment is a force we have to face and overcome to live a life full of faith embracing the unexpected.

p. 67: When life doesn’t go our way—which it rarely does—and when our expectations lead to utter disappointment, we don’t always know how to recover our wonder of trusting God. When disappointment happen repeatedly, our hearts can grow sick and our thoughts can grow dark. That’s when the enemy can move in and steal the last of our hope. That’s when doubt and unbelief can overtake what’s left of our faith…

p. 68: Holding to our faith—even I the face of deep disappointment—is critical. Making God’s promises bigger than our disappointments is essential. Getting into his Word and letting it get into us brings our hearts back to life. Worshiping him opens the door for the Holy Spirit to encourage us and heal us so we can trust again. Learning how to change our perspective through steps like these helps us transition from fearing the unexpected to trusting God through it. Do we trust that God is who he says he is?

p.73: Do you see how it’s what we do with our disappointments that determines our destiny? If we don’t go through our hardships, we may move on in years, but our life stops at the point of our greatest disappointment. We either go through what happens and manage the disappointments well, or they manage us.

p. 76: Trusting God is a series of choices, not a one-time event. And it requires something of us, which is why Paul calls it “work.” It means choosing, again and again and again, to:
-Stay connected to God and his process. Daily.
-Process disorientation through God’s perspective. Immediately.
-Risk, be vulnerable, and believe. Resiliently.
-Ask God for help when we don’t have the answers. Courageously.

p. 89: Unexpected emotional wounding is so deeply painful because it is…unexpected. It hits when our defenses are down and our trust levels are up. How critical then to understand that even when people leave us and hurt us, God never leaves us nor forsakes us. He understands what it feels like to be kicked in the gut, to have the wind knocked out of us—and he cares. He promises to be there for us and to help us.

p. 90: I know that God sometimes uses relational fractures to show us where we are out of alignment with him; maybe our affections are misplaced. It’s so easy to have unrealistic expectations of others—to inadvertently want them to love us as only God can—and to set our friendships up for failure. We can’t expect people to be Jesus to us. It’s too unfair. Jesus is the only true friend who can love us unconditionally and really stick closer than a brother.

p. 97: If we are to have healthy relationships, then we need to learn how to be good at saying what Jesus said to those who crucified him: “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

p. 116: When we risk hoping again, we learn how to live in the present, but with the future in mind. We shift the gaze of our focus forward. We become prisoners of hope who cling to hope, who speak the language of hope, who don’t put off hope, who are willing to let God surprise us with a new future. When we become prisoners of hope, we commit a daring act of defiance—we dare to get our hopes up. We dare to believe that the desires God has placed in our hearts will be fulfilled—somehow and some way. Will they look like we first imagined? Probably not. Will we go through more disappointments? Most likely. Will any of our future dreams die as well before they come to life? Quite possibly. Why? Because every promise is tested. Every dream is challenged. God does not always do what we want, when we want, or how we want—but he is always ready to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond anything we could ever ask or think.

p.128: We all have wilderness seasons in our lives, times when everything that feels familiar, stable, and comforting falls away. But that’s exactly why the wilderness is a place of transformation. With nothing to distract us from ourselves, and with no one but God to rely on, the conditions are ripe for growth and change. If we embrace the wilderness wholeheartedly, it becomes a place in which we are freedom from our bondage to fear, insecurity, and disappointment. A place where we move from being self-absorbed to others-minded. A place where we quit trying to be self-sufficient and learn to be interdependent with one another and entirely dependent on God. It’s where we learn to live wholehearted—to fully embrace the adventure that comes with the unexpected. The word whole-hearted literally means “consecrated, dedicated, given over too fully, drenched.” That’s the faith-filled mindset God wants to develop in us, and he uses every unexpected event in our lies to whole us, to heal our halved hearts and to help us grow.

p. 134: I often say that the reason God is using me like he is today is simply because I’m still here. Because I have allowed God to heal me and to continue healing me. When you get to be my age, it seems as though many have dropped out of the race and God has fewer options to choose from. But I can tell you from personal experience that if you stay in the race, if you keep your heart whole, God can and will use you. He will get his glory through whoever is willing, available, and tenaciously wholehearted.

p. 137: What Kylie and I both have learned over the years is how to keep our peace—especially over the things we can’t control. I’m determined to keep my peace at all costs, because if the enemy can get my peace, he can get my heart. I’ve learned that just because everything in my life is going crazy doesn’t mean I have to.


p. 166: Faith is believing God, believing that he is who he says he is, and that he will do what he said he would do. Patience is our capacity to tolerate delay—to wait. It’s trusting that God is good, God does good, and God knows what he is doing—no matter how long it takes and no matter what our purpose may be.


p. 195: Jesus knows it’s so easy for us to grow accustomed to our limitations—to be defined by them, to make allowances for them—and not really want to pay the price of change. He knows how easy it is for us to settle for where we are and to live a smaller life than what he’s called us to.

p. 214: Often, when things get worse before they get better, harder before easier, darker before lighter, we doubt. We doubt God. We doubt his calling. We doubt his faithfulness. We give up. I guess he didn’t open that door. I guess he didn’t call me. I guess this isn’t his will. When did God say that it would be easy? When did he say it would be effortless? Here are a few thing I have learned over and over again while following God:
Closed doors do not mean that God is not opening a way.
Increased cost does not mean that God is not calling.
The presence of a battle does not mean the absence of God in the war.
Trials don’t mean we are out of the will of God. In fact, they often mean we are precisely in the center of God’s will—right where we’re supposed to be, doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. Fighting the good fight of faith. Standing. Believing. Because he is working in all things for our good.