It’s Monday night.
The TV is off, I can hear Pat at her desk doing something on her computer. The cat just came in expecting to jump in my
lap, but alas! I had to turn him away. It’s a typical evening at our house these
days. We are both retired, and our usual
schedule is to continue doing things on our computers until bedtime… sometime before midnight, usually. What a great life I am leading right
now. I am thankful for my life and all
the experiences I have, um, well… experienced.
I am sifting through my memories now, trying to think of a poignant or
exciting, or impressive experience I’ve had.
I am happy to say that I do have some ideas, and I’ll try to be succinct
in describing one or two. They mostly turn
around a split-second decision I made prior to the experience (although not all
of them were immediately after making the decision).
I worked in Salt Lake City at the Utah State Courts at 450
S. State St. for 13 ½ years. I rode public
transit for that entire time – a no-brainer of a decision since the train
stopped a block from the courthouse. Late
one day, after a day of frustrating efforts on several projects, I suddenly had
the idea that today was done, I might as well head for home and maybe tomorrow
will work out better. I grabbed my
jacket and backpack and headed for the train station without saying goodbye or anything
else to my co-workers. I arrived at the
train platform a few minutes later; the platform was pretty crowded with commuters. I walked to the area where the train door
would stop and looked around. I could
see the train was coming and was about a hundred yards or less away. Then I noticed a man walking toward me who
seemed to be weaving in his walk. As the
train approached, he stopped next to me, turned around and lost his balance,
falling back toward the tracks and the oncoming train. As the train began blaring its horn, I instinctively
reached out and grabbed the man’s jacket, pulling him from the danger that was about
to befall him. It all happened so fast;
I didn’t even think about it, I just acted.
The man didn’t seem to be fazed at all by what just happened, but I don’t
think he was in his right mind. He said
to me thank you and then wandered off to who knows where. I thought at that point how fortunate I was
where I could do something about his plight.
God is the God of miracles, and I believe I was made to feel the way I
did at the end of my workday a few minutes before I normally would have left
the office because Heavenly Father knew what was going to happen.
I have been guided from time to time in my life by the influence
of the Holy Spirit. I would like to say
it happens daily, but I can confess that I haven’t perfected the knack of
listening to the guidance that I am given.
There are times when the Holy Spirit speaks, and I know I must be getting
heavenly messages. It’s probably when He
uses a spiritual sledgehammer to get through.
I tell you, though, that the messages always benefit my life spiritually
or otherwise. Pat and I have not hesitated
when we have a decision to make if we both get the same feeling of correctness
about the feelings. Often, we think
after making the decision “Are we being hasty?” After discussion we realize that things will
be OK.
I know that we mortals are constantly offered heavenly guidance,
as well as comfort and heavenly love. It
is our gift from a loving Heavenly Father.
I urge you to say your prayers and then listen to heavenly responses. Obey the guidance you are given. I promise to do better at this myself. When you have been guided by the Holy Spirit,
take time to thank Heavenly Father for the gift!
I am thankful that I have been led by the Spirit at times. I seek for more such events in my life.
Don
