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Signs Before you start, no this has nothing to do with the movie. Well...not THAT movie. Well...it's all sorta complicated and deals with a lot of coincidence and conjecture...so if that sorta stuff ain't for you, then we can part ways here...no hard feelings. Here's what happened that provoked this line of thought... A couple of days ago, after a fairly good meal, I remember walking to the fridge to get me a nice, cold glass of coke. I also distinctly remember thinking to myself, "Hmmm...this kind of sucks. While I WILL be getting the glass of coke, I feel that the glass isn't big enough to satisfy my current thirst for coke and wouldn't it be great if there was a way to get a LOT of coke at once instead of just a teeny glass of it? Well...it would be great but might as well just resign myself to just the small glass." Having completed my line of thought, I moved to the fridge and pulled out the 2L coke bottle and noticed that it was leaking VERY slightly. Upon informing my mom and sister of this fact as I poured myself a glass (they were in the kitchen at the time), I asked them if they wanted a glass so that it wouldn't leak in the fridge anymore. At this point, my sister suggests that I just take the rest of the bottle up to my room and finish it off (there was about half the bottle left). Upon remarking in strong terms that I don't want it in my room leaking on my carpet while I drink it...my sis hands me the just-washed coffee pot and gets me to pour the remainder of the coke in that and with that and my cup, I head to my room...thinking about how sometimes, things just kind of work out. After all, I wished for a way to get more than a glass of coke at a time and hey, presto, there it was. I thought to myself how strange and coincidental it all seemed to have occured this way...then I put it out of my mind. I put that event out of my head for a while...then I saw Bruce Almighty for the first time and a certain scene really started up the old thinking process again. If you haven't seen it...there's a part where Bruce is really pissed off at God after everything goes wrong at once and just goes driving down this long stretch of road while cursing his luck. As he drives, he passes a construction sign bearing the words "DANGER AHEAD, SLOW DOWN" and he is also passed by some sort of tractor which is CHOCK full of stop signs and slow down signs and a whole shitload of other similar roadsigns. These signs...he ignores and as the end result, ends up smashing the shit out of his car. Of course, the average watcher automatically makes the correct assumption...that God was uptting those signs in the hopes that he'd avoid the collision. This was the first thing that made me think...then the second was a sort of parable that I encountered again embedded within a fantasy book that my cousin was reading. Obviously, this won't be word for word but the main ideas will be the same. As the story goes, there's this man and his house right? And it starts to rain and the river near the house starts to rise. While the water is rising, the man is visited by a bunch of people on a truck who are fleeing in case of flood and invite him along. To these people, the man responds, "It is okay. I have no need to flee and no need to fear for I trust in God and I know that he will keep me from harm." The people on the truck leave the man to his house. A while later, the water rises some more until the man is forced to retreat to the second floor of his house. At this point, while he is looking out the window, he sees two people in proper swimming gear who had made their way to his house. "Jump!" they say. "We'll help you swim to safety!" To these two swimmers, the man smiles upon them and responds as he had to the people on the truck. "Fear not for my safety for I lay my life in God's hands and I am sure that he will let no harm come to me." At this response, the swimmers swim off, leaving the man alone again. As the flood rises higher, the man is forced to retreat to the roof of his house and as he waits there, a boat comes by with rescuers who offer to take him to safety. Again, the man responds that his trust is in God and not these people...that they should not fear for the Lord wouldn't let anything happen to him. The people in the boat try to convince him but they are unsuccessful and eventually, they leave. The floodwaters rise higher and higher until eventually, the man is perched on his chimney as the rest of his house is underwater. At this point, a helicopter flies by, dropping down a ladder for the man to climb to safety. For the last time, the man replies to his would-be rescuers that his faith and trust is in God and that God will save him when the time is right. As no amount of convincing will dislodge the man, the chopper leaves and the man is alone. Eventually, the waters rise up too high and the man is washed away and eventually drowns. The man's soul goes up to Heaven and as soon as he sees God, the man begins to yell and shout. "Why didn't you save me from the flood? I trusted you! Why didn't you come?" To this, a surprised God replies, "But I sent you a truck, two swimmers, a boat and a helicoptor. What more did you want?" The basic idea behind this story I guess, would be that God works in mysterious or more subtle ways than one might expect. Then a little while ago, I started suddenly to think of that little coke incident again in a different light. An insignificant event? Sure. Tiny and most likely nothing but the merest coincidence? I'm waaaay ahead of ya. God's small way of fulfilling a wish? . . .o.O really?....ya think? I don't know if it was a specific action from God that caused such a fortuitous coincidence. But was it nothing BUT coincidence? I'm not so sure anymore... If belief and faith was nothing but a matter of figuring the odds...I mean, I basically have nothing to lose BY believing in him and a potential eternity to lose by NOT doing so...if that was all there was to it, I would've been all over it long time ago. But as most people know, it's a lot more than just that isn't it? It requires more faith than I think I have right now...it requires strength to stick with the right paths and most of all I think, it requires a form of giving in, of surrender to God's will, whatever it may be. Did I get it all or am I missing something here? I still don't know if God is real...if he's there somewhere watching and reading and just plaing KNOWING everything about me and what I do...but after this tiny little coke event...I can tell ya...I'll be paying closer attention to such things... You never know...they could all be signs that he uses to try convince people like me...if I only pay attention and see em for what they are... It appears to be my one resolution for this year...let's hope I can keep it... |