How do I know if God is trying to tell me something (Pt2)

     In my experience, God is here with us.  He is present in others all around us.  I believe I have experienced God working in my life, directing me, in at least three different ways.

     My intro post two days ago provides some  basic information about my thoughts on this topic.

https://www.ioikts.net/blog/2404602_how-do-i-know-if-god-is-trying-to-tell-me-something-intro

     Every once in a while, God may slap me on the head, or pat my cheek lovingly, in order to get my attention, asking, “Are you listening, do you hear me?”   I experienced one of these instances in 1999.  As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, my wife and I began spending a few weekends each year presenting talks to other married couples.  The group delivering these weekends was a global non-profit with only one paid employee.  Everyone else was a volunteer.  A couple was chosen through a discernment process every two years and asked to lead the local community.  That community covered a large area across the northern part of the major city in which we lived.

     As the discernment process in 1999 unfolded, we were asked if we would be open to leading the community for the next two years.  We prayed about it for a few days and responded that we didn't think it was the right time for us to be the leaders.  I had recently started a new job, we were living in an apartment with our custom home due to be completed in four months,  and we were one and a half years into the process of adopting a newborn. We didn't see how we could handle the additional role given our current commitments.  The final phase of the discernment was to occur the next Sunday.

     That Friday, someone offered me a pair of tickets to a Major League Baseball (MLB) game that evening.  I accepted the tickets and my wife and I went to the game.  The tickets were in a section of the stadium that was completely empty.  About fifteen minutes after we took our seats, an older couple arrived with their two grand children and sat down next to us in the same row.  As the night went on, we thought the couple looked familiar.  We started talking to them and discovered that they were one of the couples who attended the very first couples weekend that we presented.  They went on to tell us how much that weekend experience had meant to them.  They also shared that a friend had given them four tickets that Friday morning.

     Coincidence, we didn't think so.  We recognized that God was trying to get our attention.   We prayed about it again and decided to trust that God had a plan for us and would give us the grace we needed over the next two years.  We called the current leaders and told them that we would be open to the possibility of leading the local group. 

     Well, that Sunday we were discerned in as the area leaders for our community.  AND, Monday, the next day, we received a call from the adoption agency to let us know that a birth mother wanted us to adopt her baby.

     There is more to this story on the adoption front that  reinforces that fact that God had a plan for us, and he was providing us direction for our life, and would support us through it all.  And He did!

     As the saying goes, "Want to make God laugh, tell him your plans!"

     Can you think of a time when God might have been trying to get your attention?  How do you feel about being open to the idea that God may have a plan for you that dosen't align with your own personal plans?

- BigE