Holy Spirit Central
Self Examinations
In everyday life, I have been training myself to look for the strange and random things. I believe that on occasion, The Lord shows us unusual, random, and phemominal things to not only get our attention, but to teach us things. Below are some examples of this that I have experienced in my personal life, and that have either guided in the direction that I should be going as a Christian, or that have taught me something new:
So today was the first day in months that the weather was nice enough to ride my 4 Wheeler. It actually hit about 60 degrees, so I was definately going to take advantage of it! Surprisingly enough, it started and I was off without a hitch! I live in a highly wooded area, so theres lots of trails for me to ride on. I know many of them, or so I thought. I headed out across the road to the woods beside my house, and drove up to the opening in the trees that I normally go into. For some reason or another, I decided to drive past it and go a little further. I had done this before, and I even knew that there wasn't really anything to see, but I still did it. Just to my left I noticed that there was another opening in the trees. Not a trail, but an opening with leaves and just a little bit of brush covering the ground. Being the "off-roader" that I am, I decided to take it. Since it wasn't any sort of maintained path, I figured that I would only get a couple hundred feet into the woods before having to turn around. I drove a couple yards in, and turned to the right. To my surprise, there was an opening about 4 feet wide that went STRAIGHT, and I mean STRAIGHT into the woods for as far as I could see! It led to this gorgeous clearing in the middle of nowhere. The clearing had (what looked like) even more pathways leading from it! It was amazing! On my way out, I put a stake up to mark where I had gone in. This was definately a place worth revisiting.
Analysis:
You might say, "What the heck does this have to do with God?" Well, besides the fact that he created the beautiful sites that I saw that day, not a whole lot! You see, what I didn't realize at that time was that this experience had a deeper meaning than just flying around on my quad. It showed me that the best path to be on in life isn't always the easiest or most obvious one to take!
What Happened:
So today is the day that I attended (not by my choice) my local government's Jury Selection duty. The way my local government selects jurors is by sending a court summons to about 120 people, and then everyone is brought together. This was to be a three day process that I would be missing quite a bit of work by going to (which I didn't mind). How it works is, the judge and his assistants choose a group out of 120 people randomly, and then the attorneys choose an even SMALLER group (by questioning) out of that group to serve on the jury. This was my first time doing anything like it, and to be quite honest with you, I wasnt sure what to do or how to answer questions a lot of times. I listened intently and didn't really do anything too embarassing, but I found myself constantly praying: "Lord, whatever happens, let it be your will and not mine." I continued to pray this each time I was pulled into the first small group. I was isolated from the 120 other potential jurors three times, and I found myself getting more nervous each time. I realized that I really did not want to be in the final jury on any of these cases, and was selfishly asking God to disclude me from them and have the attorneys choose other jurors. Miraculously, I was not chosen for one case, and was quite pleased (I appologized to God for my selfishness). Immediately the judge informed us that the whole process moved along quite quicker than he expected, and that we were finished and would not need to come back for the next two days. This made me overjoyed, as I immediately decided that since I called off for three days of work, I would use the next two as vacation days and not tell anyone. I was planning to do this EVEN THOUGH we were in quite a fix and had to work mandatory overtime. I then thought to myself: "Wait a minute, The Lord just answered your prayers, and you are about to lie just so you can have a little more free time. What are you doing?! You owe him one. Go to work!"... and so I did!Analysis:
The main thing that I have learned from this experience is that God will reward you, even when you do not even remotely deserve it. You should reward him back just as well. Surely, there is no gift large or miraculous enough to have even an ounce of worth in God's eyes, but what little in life that we CAN do for him, we should! Even if you decide to not tell a little white lie, God will notice!
When you read each of these instances, you might say: "Well, you really can turn any strange coincidance into some type of lesson to yourself, it doesent really mean it is a direct message from The Lord does it?". Well to answer this I would say to you: I believe that God sends us messages at times, and many times we may miss them. Some of the above examples may not have been interpreted correctly by myself, or may not have even been a message at all, but regardless of all of that, each one has improved me further as a person!
Try it!
During a typical day, look for signs of The Lord's guidance. Many times you may not understand what God is trying to get across to you, but when you do make connections, you may be suprised!
