Category: God’s Mysterious Ways

Something I’ve emphasized in a few of my prior articles is how I truly believe God communicates to us through what many often write off as “coincidences” and I decided I need to share one of these moments that I still clearly remember from long ago.

The story of this “coincidence” begins back in my senior year of college at Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York in 1994, just after I had been put on double academic probation because of yet another drunken incident. Because of this infraction, I had been forced to see the drug and alcohol counselor on campus for a number of sessions, along with a local person who was in recovery for alcohol and drug addiction.

During each of these sessions, I was asked plenty of times if I thought I was an alcoholic by this local person who regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. I clearly remember telling him over and over again each time he asked that I was just having a good time with my fraternity brothers and that my drinking was no different than any of them. I also scoffed at pretty much everything else he and the counselor suggested and rolled my eyes more than once over what they kept trying to insinuate with my drinking.

When our sessions were close to an end, I was asked by this local person if I wanted to attend a few AA meetings with him. I adamantly refused and said there was no way I was an alcoholic and just wanted to finish the sessions and move on with my life and indeed that’s what I did when they eventually ended.

It wasn’t long before I resumed my heavy drinking and soon forgot about this counselor and her recovery friend. About a year later, I had graduated from college and was now working in the field my degree was in (Information Systems). By that point my drinking had grown to epic proportions and I couldn’t go a day without getting drunk. On June 10^th, 1995, I had had enough of it and in a moment of great pain, I admitted to God and myself that I was powerless over alcohol and drugs and that my life had become unmanageable.

I spent the next three to six months going to a therapist to help with my newly found sobriety and even started out doing the right thing by attending AA meetings on a regular basis. During that period of time, I also went with my mother on a trip to Houston, Texas to help clean out her mother’s house and then take a leisurely drive from there to Austin to see one of her best friends who had moved to that city only recently.

While on that road trip from Houston to Austin, in the middle of nowhere, I told my mother I needed to stop and get a drink because I felt parched. I clearly remember it being a hot day and started looking for a place to quench my thirst. When we finally came upon a little supermarket in a small town, I quickly hopped out of the car and bounded into the store to find something cold to cool me down. As soon as I entered the store, there standing directly in front of me with a shopping cart in hand was that recovery guy from Rochester that I had been forced to see back in my senior year over a year and a half prior.

He immediately recognized me and I smiled from ear to ear knowing that this couldn’t be just some random “coincidence”. With it being more than 1600 miles from where we first met and in a store in a small town that I suddenly and quite randomly stopped at, I felt like I was meant to see this man again to tell him I was an alcoholic and was now clean and sober.

After doing so, he told me he had always wondered if I was ever going to realize it for myself. It was then I thanked him for being the first person in my life to truly plant the seed that would eventually lead me to sobriety from a disease I had once been so unwilling to see how active it was within myself. He was more than grateful to hear that and for the “coincidence” of us running into each other. Before leaving, he told me he had moved to that small town not too long after meeting me and somehow, I knew in that very moment of him saying that, that God really was and probably always had been, working in my life.

So, if you happen to ever get any one of these types of “coincidences” in your own life, don’t just write them off as one. Maybe, just maybe, it’s really God continuing to work in one of His mysterious ways to orchestrate the world in a way where His unconditional love and light can prevail…

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

I’m not a big reader of books these days, but every now and then I’m led to a book in a strange way where the book itself ends up truly inspiring and uplifting me. The latest one to do this was “Joshua”, a novel by Joseph Girzone.

How I came across “Joshua” began all the way back in February. I had just finished reading a decent story a friend had given me that paralleled much of the healing journey I’ve been on and began looking for something new to take with me on vacation. Because I’m not an avid reader and often get easily bored with many of the things I do read, I’m not the kind of person these days who just buys or downloads any specific book. That’s why I usually pray now for guidance from God on even the simplest of things such as the next book for me to read, as so far in doing so, it has led me to several incredible finds. The last time this happened was with a book titled “The Shack” by William P. Young.

Nevertheless, nothing came to me in regards to my next read prior to or during my vacation. Nor did anything come my way during all of March or April, but that didn’t stop me from continuing to pray for the next book to come into my life. And then one day I randomly asked a friend in early May if he had any book suggestions. At first he didn’t, but as he was getting ready to hang up the phone, one came to mind. He said the title was “Joshua”. While that in itself didn’t peak my interest, as so many have recommended books to me before, what did was something that happened two days later. My best friend had just come from a free giveaway at the local library and said a book jumped out at him. And wouldn’t you know it, it was the same book, “Joshua”.

I tend to feel that when things like this come in multiple occurrences in short periods of time, it’s my Higher Power sending me a message. So I immediately ordered the book from Amazon and began reading it as soon as it came in the mail. The story itself is a fictionalized approach on what it would be like if Jesus came back in modern day. In this case, Jesus returns as a man named Joshua in a small town named Salem, which is actually a community in upstate New York. It didn’t take long for me to be extremely moved by this book, in fact it was hard to put it down and digest what I had read so far. When I finished the last page, torrents of tears gushed out of my eyes and it was then I was fully convinced God had led me to this book that was written so long ago (1983).

I’m now reading the second book in the series as there are a number of them and it too is fast becoming another great read. While I believe that not every book that moves one person will move another, I do know that God works in mysterious ways to answer prayers. In this case, I have no doubt that God led me to “Joshua.”

So if you are looking for something to read that might inspire and uplift you, you could read “Joshua” or, you could do what I did instead and pray. Pray that God guides you to the book that God wants you to read. You never know, it may be one that will change your life like “Joshua” did for me…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Toledo, Ohio is my home now and I’m grateful to my Higher Power for bringing me here. I must say there still are some moments though where I really do miss living near Boston, Massachusetts and the other night was one of them. But ironically, what transpired that night was probably meant to happen exactly as it did because in the end it showed me another example of how God works in mysterious ways.

It all began with me taking a relative newcomer in sobriety to a recovery meeting last Saturday evening. This wasn’t a normal meeting I was taking him to though. I had decided I wanted to go hear the lead speaker at the Ohio State Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Convention, which was being hosted here in Toledo this past weekend.

Back in Boston, I usually annually attended the Massachusetts version of this conference with many of my recovery friends and I was very interested in seeing how Ohio’s was. Regrettably, given my lack of income in recent years, I’ve only been able to attend the lead speaker meetings during any of these conventions for quite awhile now. In Massachusetts, while it’s hoped that people would pay the registration fee even if they just came for those speaker meetings, there was always an unwritten rule that no one was ever turned away even if they hadn’t paid. I quickly learned on Saturday this wasn’t the case in Ohio though.

As I prepared to walk through the meeting doors with my newly sober friend who had only a few months under his belt, we were promptly told we couldn’t enter because we hadn’t registered. Even after I informed them of my friend being newly sober, I was told that Ohio’s AA convention didn’t have any unwritten rule like Massachusetts did. The bottom line was that if you hadn’t paid, you couldn’t attend anything including the lead speaker meetings. While I’m not sure if Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith would have approved of this policy, especially when a newcomer was involved, I immediately practiced acceptance with it all and apologized to my friend for not knowing. After I got back in my car to take him home though, my evening began to get even more interesting.

I suddenly received an urgent message on my phone from another local friend. He had been in a major accident where his car was completely totaled and towed away. Unfortunately he also had no way of getting home, which was close to twenty-five minutes away. So after I got my newcomer friend back to his home, I immediately went to help this other friend out. The fact is I know I’d want the same for me if I were ever in the same type of situation. Oddly enough, once I had him safely in my car and we were on our way, it started to rain. He then smiled gratefully and told me his Higher Power must have been working for him that day because I had been the only one who had answered and been available to help him out.

So while I may have been initially sad and a little embarrassed that I hadn’t gotten my newly sober friend in to see the lead speaker at that convention on Saturday, it seems as if my Higher Power had other plans for me that night. I guess that ago old saying continues to prove true in my life, as this was yet another example of how God really does work in mysterious ways.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson