I was raised all of my life among religious people of various denominations. When I was a young child I was raised as a Catholic and went through all of the rituals of the Catholic church. While living with my father, who disappeared with me and my three year brother when I was five years old, I was raised as a fundamentalist Christian. It wasn't that my dad was a Christian, it was because the church was conveniently located across the road from the farm my father had moved us to. Then, after my mother kidnapped us and moved us back to California, I found myself back in the Catholic church. And later a Catholic high school. All kinds of confusing dogma for a youngster in his formative years.
So I really don't know what franchise to believe in. I have a hard time picturing a God living somewhere above us blessing one set of humans over another. Yet, each different franchise will fight about what version of belief or faith one should have.
One says follow Allah. Another Jesus. Another Joseph Smith. Bhudda. I mean the choices are endless, yet people of different faiths will die - or kill you - for their beliefs. So, what to believe?
I don't really know. But when I step from my porch and look at the stars at night I know that all the stars in the heavens didn't happen by accident. I believe there's a supernatural plan to our universe, regardless of how we characterize and package our beliefs. I myself have fallen away from organized religion because it doesn't seem to deliver what is promised. Yet there are incidences in my life that happen that can only be explained by divine influence - if you will.
This comes up because the other day I was on the phone with a friend in an Eastern state and was telling her about my plans to attend a conference in a Central American country. My plan was to invest in real estate or some other business venture in that country. She didn't say much about my plan and said she'd be in touch later. And sure enough she sent a text with the name and phone number of a friend of hers that she wanted me to talk to.
Before I could call her friend, her friend called me. And to make a long blog shorter, her friend vehemently cautioned me against stepping one foot into that country. And said that I shouldn't ever contact that group again because they were criminals who'd been convicted of various scams and frauds. And I was given some links to news articles about the group that backed up everything her friend told me.
So I bring this up today because I believe this is nothing but divine intervention in one form or another. I mean, what are the odds that a woman I talk to a couple times a year would know someone who had the kind of information I was given? And a friend who would contact me within a week or so before I was planning to buy plane tickets and reserve my place at the conference?
Things like this don't happen by coincidence.
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