Thought For The Day

Quote #1

“Those who leave everything in God’s hands will eventually see God’s hand in everything.” (Travis Greene)

Quote #2

“Divine Intervention happens every day…It’s called Synchronicity.” (Wayne Dyer)

Quote #3 

“Stop trying to control your life. It gets in the way of Divine Intervention.” (Cheryl Richardson)

Bonus Quote

“Many times the wrong train took me to the right place.” (Paulo Coelho Aleph)

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

God’s Mysterious Ways

Thank you for joining in to another entry of my series, God’s Mysterious Ways, where I write about things that may be more than just coincidences, where God may very well indeed have a hand behind it, which for today is about the unique timing of a call I made to a close friend of mine recently that might have just saved his life.

A few weeks ago, I was visiting my friend Frank in Tiffin, hanging out at his home for a while before going out to dinner, which we usually do bi-weekly. As I was taking a closer look at the few plants in his home, none of which seemed to be doing all that well, I noticed on the table behind one of them sat a carbon monoxide detector. I asked Frank why it wasn’t plugged in and he mentioned that it had been having issues and believed it just needed a new battery. I thought nothing of it and off we went to dinner shortly thereafter.

About a week later, I sat in a hospital room with my partner Chris, keeping him company as he had just had back surgery that morning. While we watched a film on my laptop, Frank messaged me to see how Chris was doing. I responded that all was well and he said we’d both be in his prayers. When I finally left Chris’s room after 10pm to head home while he got some much-needed rest, I checked my phone quickly to make sure there were no calls or text messages to return. There wasn’t. Typically, I don’t make calls or send text messages after 10pm unless someone has either previously set up a scheduled call with me or someone has reached out to me. So, in this case, I had no reason to contact anyone and began my drive home.

A few minutes into my drive, I felt this sudden urge to call Frank, even though there was no reason to call him. I had already spoken to him earlier, both on the phone and via text. Yet, the desire to call him was quite overwhelming. So, I dialed his number, which he picked up after a few rings. I asked how he was doing and as he responded, I could hear in the background a very loud and annoying alarm going off making it hard for me to hear what he was saying.  I asked Frank if he had gotten a burglar alarm in his house and he told me it was his carbon monoxide detector acting up again. Almost as if I was on auto pilot at that point, I told him to bring that detector into his garage and see if it went off in there. After waiting a few minutes and then returning to his garage, he told me it wasn’t going off anymore. I then told him to immediately call the fire department and remain in his car until they got there. An hour passed and I grew concerned so I called Frank, only to find out that he was now at a local hotel. Why? Because the fire department had discovered immediately upon arrival that there were lethal doses of carbon monoxide in Frank’s place and told him that if he had gone to sleep that night, there was a pretty good chance he wouldn’t have woken up the next morning, or simply put, ever again.

So, did the sudden and overwhelming urge I had to call Frank that night, when there was no need or reason to do so, come from something Greater? Or was it just another coincidence in my life? Of course, I don’t have the answer to that, but I choose to see it as God using me in a way that potentially saved my friend’s life and for that I’m truly thankful. Thankful for feeling like I still hold a purpose in God’s world from time to time and thankful that my dear friend Frank is still alive and well!

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Silly Joke Friday

Silly Joke #1

A soldier at the Pentagon got out of the shower in the men’s locker room and realized that his clothes were missing. While searching around for them, he accidentally locked himself out of the locker room, and found himself completely naked in the halls of the world’s most powerful military organization HQ. But, luckily, no one was around to see him. So, he ran as fast as he could to the elevator. When it arrived, it was empty. He breathed a sigh of relief and got in. When the doors opened on his floor, there was no one waiting outside. “This must be my lucky day,” he said to himself. He was now only a few yards from his office where he had some spare clothes.  Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming from around the corner and heard his General’s voice. There was no way he’d make it to his door in time, so he ducked into the closest office available, and suddenly found himself in the laboratory for research & development where the lead scientist there paused from working on one of her experiments with puzzled interest at the naked man in front of her. The soldier thought quickly, stood up straight and saluted. “I am here to report the partial success of the Personal Invisibility Device,” he said.  “I see,” the Head Scientist said. “But the Shrink Ray seems to be working perfectly.”

Silly Joke #2

A very heavy snowstorm had closed all the schools in town for a few days. When the children of St. Mary’s Elementary returned to their school a few days later, one of the nuns asked her students whether they had used the time away from school constructively by talking to God more. “I sure did, teacher,” one little girl replied. “I prayed several times everyday for a lot more snow!!!”

Silly Joke #3

Morris asks his 13-year-old son Michael one day if he knows anything about the birds and the bees. “I don’t want to know!” said Michael and suddenly burst into tears. Confused, the father asked his son what was wrong. “Oh dad,” Michael sobbed, “at age six you gave me the ‘there’s no Santa’ speech. At age seven it was the ‘there’s no Easter bunny’ speech. Then at age 8 you hit me with the ‘there’s no tooth fairy’ speech! The last five years have been pretty good so if you’re going to tell me now that grown-ups don’t really have sex, is there anything really left to live for?!”

Bonus Silly Joke (For Adults Only)

A blonde and a brunette were taking the elevator to the lobby from the 25th floor. On the 23rd floor, a great looking man with ruffled hair gets into the elevator. The women exchange a look acknowledging just how good looking this man is. The man gets off the elevator on the 12th floor. The women watch him exit the elevator. The brunette turns to the blonde and says, “God, he was really good looking, but someone ought to give him some Head & Shoulders.” To which the blonde replies, “How do you give Shoulders?”

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson