Signposts – Part IV

Signposts – Part IV

Seated on the right side, I am the only passenger on a 747 airplane. The plane is descending far too fast. It suddenly occurs to me—we are crash landing.

All air is sucked from my lungs.

The plane is frightfully close to the airport building. I wince as the right wing of the airplane hits the structure and breaks off. After that, I shut my eyes. My arms cover my head, and I slump over as we hit the ground hard. The sound of screeching metal on concrete is ear-piercing. The plane weaves right and left, fishtailing wildly. I brace to stop my forward motion. Will the plane burst into flames?

Finally, all is quiet. I am alive. Visibly trembling, I exit the plane.

Immediately, a Northwest Airlines official is there to greet me.

“I’m…I’m so sorry,” I say, between labored breaths. “I didn’t mean to wreck your plane.”

He offers a wide smile and touches my arm. “Not a problem.”

I’m stunned. Millions of dollars have been lost in the wreckage.

He cuts to the chase. “It doesn’t matter.” Pointing toward the hangar, he continued. “We have this for you.”Continue reading

Signposts – Part III

Signposts – Part III

Coincidences are curious things. Mysterious, and yet, still commonplace—like a sneeze. Many don’t notice them. Some people pause for a moment, offering a half-smile. But few ponder whether or not a coincidence means anything beyond chance.

For almost a century, great minds have contemplated coincidences through a theory known as synchronicity. By definition, it means: the experience of two or more events as meaningfully related, though they’re unlikely to be causally related. Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, introduced the concept in the 1920s and spent decades developing a fuller description.

He said, “When coincidences pile up…one cannot help being impressed by them – for the greater the number…or the more unusual its character, the more improbable it becomes.”

Arthur Koestler wrote extensively on synchronicity in The Roots of Coincidence. Physicist and Nobel laureate, Wolfgang Pauli, and Albert Einstein noted the patterns as well.

What interests me most is Jung’s statement that life was not a series of random events but rather an expression of a deeper order, wherein a person was both embedded in an orderly framework and was also the focus of that orderly framework(!) Any realization of this he maintained, was more than just an intellectual exercise, but also contained elements of a spiritual awakening. From the religious perspective, Jung said synchronicity is like an “intervention of grace.”

Okay, now back to planet normal where you and I live.Continue reading

Signposts – Part II

Signposts – Part II

Okay, now things get interesting.

Yes, I experienced a genuine healing from a medical condition never known to resolve (Writer’s Cramp). Talk about a sign. But, instead of acting on my pastor’s words, I stalled. Why? Because I failed to see myself as a writer. And more importantly, I didn’t have any vision for what God wanted me to write.

Consider these words from Oswald Chambers: (paraphrased, July 6th entry)

         We always have visions, before a thing is made real. Although the vision is real, it’s not real in you. The vision isn’t a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants you to be. 

          God gives you the vision and then takes you down in the valley to batter you into the shape of the vision. He puts you through fires and floods to get you to the place where He can trust you with the veritable reality. Over and over again, you might try to escape from His hand. In the valley, many faint and give way. But every vision will be made real, if you have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God.

         Don’t lose heart in the process. If you’ve ever had a vision from God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you.

During those years of stalling, some interesting signposts popped up along the way. God began pointing to my design, as He geared up to impart vision.Continue reading