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Description: This blog post is about how God can show Himself real to you in inexplicable, but at the same time small and concrete ways. Sometimes it’s an enigma or a miracle, but it can confirm your feelings.
I know that everyone has their own beliefs, and for me I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that He speaks to us and guides us if we are willing to listen to Him for our needs. I know others may have other beliefs, but it works for me, and I have learned to trust the intuition God gave me. Sometimes what we think we need isn't really what we need, so I've learned to trust in His wisdom. I believe that every now and then, he makes Himself known by giving you what I call 'a wink and a nod.' They are small things that you can't really explain, but it shows you that you are hearing from God and He is looking out for you. I've had many moments over the years like this, but I want to share one of them with you.
One morning when my son was in his last year and a half of high school, I was talking with him. He was struggling in a physics class last time we talked and we brainstormed some ways to get help. I was following up with him to see if those things (getting in a study group, going to his teacher during his office hours for help, going to the college's learning center, etc...) were working. Well, unfortunately, he told me that he was still struggling and none of the strategies were making a difference.
Moms out there, you understand what I'm about to say. There's something that happens inside of you when you know that your child has a need, but you feel inept in meeting it. What made it worse for me is, I have my own learning center. I spend my days helping other people's children, and it pained me to know that I couldn't help my own son. Lord knows physics was so over my head I didn't even understand the things he did know much less the things he was struggling in.
Well, I didn't say much more about it, I just suggested that maybe he find a classmate that he knows understands the material and see if he or she would be willing to help him, but I knew that wasn't going to fix the problem. My son can be painfully introverted. So I took him to school and pushed the feelings of parental inadequacy aside.
As I was driving home from my errands, I was getting ready to pass a Dollar General and an
overwhelming feeling came over me to stop at that store. I felt I heard the words you need to stop at the Dollar General, there's something there you need. I was trying to ignore this feeling; I was tired and the last thing I wanted to do was make another stop, but within seconds I felt it even stronger and more urgently. I had no earthly reason to stop at the Dollar General, but I turned in anyway and as I was driving into the parking lot I started thinking about things I could get from the dollar store that would justify making this extra stop: looking for a T-shirt, getting some paper towels, or something.
Anyway while I was in line to check out my items I was distracted by my thoughts, but through the clutter I heard the woman who was purchasing her items two people ahead of me say to the cashier, "You know, I am a physics professor..."
Immediately, I came out of my fog, and reverberating in my mind were the words: I am a physics professor...I am a physics professor...I am a physics professor. I couldn't believe it! While I am marveling at what I just heard, she had grabbed her items and was starting to walk towards the door.
I felt a little self-conscious and stalker-ish, but I shook off the fog, ran around the person in front of me, out of line threw the T-shirts on the side of the counter and asked the woman before she got to the door, "Did you say you were a physics professor?"
She said, "Yes. Actually my specialty is in biophysics." I shook my head, and told her, "I know this is crazy, but I have a son who goes to NCA&T," and I heard her say under her breath, This was God. She replied that she was an A&T alum, and she didn't even know why she stopped at that store. It was uncanny. We talked for a while, and we really connected. She said that she didn't regularly tutor, but she agreed to come to Greensboro to give my son a tutoring session at my Academy, even though she lived and worked as a professor for a college in a neighboring city. I was stunned. Why was she even at a Dollar General in Greensboro? How was she there at the exact moment I was, checking out her items exactly when I was? If I had ignored that small voice and feeling, I would have missed her and never would have known I did.
There were so many unbelievable and inexplicable elements to what happened that day that I
can't deny in my mind and in my heart that it was a divine set up from God for me to even be here to meet this woman. I don't know how these things happen, but the circumstances are so strange and fantastical that for me it is evidence there is a God and He speaks to me through my mind and feelings sometimes. The experience is something that though someone could try to explain it away, it is real and vivid enough to me that it wouldn't make me question or change my mind. I hold those experiences close to my heart, and I open my hands, and receive them with a knowing nod as I look up to the sky and wink back.
Humans have a tendency to reason away things or forget things that at the time seemed miraculous. One way I have learned to keep up with experiences I don't want to forget, to think through problems, or to be self-reflective is to write things down in a journal or diary. I have begun to love gratitude journals, because I can keep them and always go back to remember things that made an impact on me. It keeps my life exciting and full of thankfulness. I have created a gratitude journal that I hope to expand into a host of journals for my use and to add to the value of your life. Check it out to see it doesn't help you find solutions to challenges and areas in your life that you can be thankful for.
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