Are there moments in our life when we can see God’s fingerprints or the Will of the Universe directing us along our path? I’m talking about seeing such a Divine event as it is occurring or upon hindsight years later.
That’s the question raised by a group of my friends at the Spiritual Sharing Circle that meets once a month at the Center for Contemporary Mysticism in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.
I immediately focused on my days while working for a daily newspaper and I felt the urge to seek a different career path. I recalled writing about a hostage-taking incident at Graterford State Prison, the “biggest and the baddest” Pennsylvania state prison. I was in my 30s and was joined at the Pottstown paper by a stringer for the New York Times who was filing a dispatch from our newsroom.
He was around 50 years old but looked more like 80 with wrinkles all over his battered face and a shake to his hands. He evidently smoked and drank too much and I knew at that very moment that I didn’t want to be like him when I reached that age.
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I felt it in my soul but didn’t know what to do until months later when I now understand that Fate was sending me another message. This time, I was in my Conshohocken home after smoking some marijuana and learning that one of my college friends had entered law school.
Charlie Brown, (Yes, that is his real name!) was a Vietnam veteran whom I had worked with at the Temple News. He became a reporter for a few local Philadelphia area newspapers and some ten years later was planning to become a prosecutor in some California city where he had moved.
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“If Charlie Brown can be a lawyer, then I can become one too,” I said to myself and found enough chutzpah inside of me to begin the application process for becoming a lawyer.
I applied to Temple Law School and got in despite terrible entrance exam scores. I practiced law for 20 years trying more than a hundred jury trials winning more than half of ’em. I also gave up smoking (cigarettes and the other stuff !) as well as the occasional excessive drinking and felt a helluva lot better upon reaching the golden age of 50.
Looking back on the question about the “Fingerprints of God” I see now that both life events triggered something inside of me. Some outside Force had been raised and somehow guided me in a direction I eventually followed. I am so grateful to have been open to such angelic instructions.
(Guided by Janet Mather)
It is so amazing how God divinely orders our steps even at times when everything seems against us.
InHisCare💜
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All we need do is to stay open to the call and follow it to our heart’s content!
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Amen. So very true. Expressed to beautifully!
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