Miracles and Mysterious Ways

 "Get Used to Different....." is what Jesus says to His new students John, James, Andrew, and Simon in The Chosen when he invites Matthew, the tax collector to follow Him.  If you haven't watched The Chosen yet I would highly recommend it!  It's a beautiful portrayl of the New Testament events.  Jesus' current followers do not like Matthew very much.  He is awkward, genius, and a traitor to the Jewish people.  I feel for Matthew though, he is an outlier that seeks to fit somewhere, but has trouble wherever he goes.  This part of the story spoke to me.  It shows that no matter who we are or what we've done, if we are willing to follow, we can. He will have us.  It doesn't matter what we've done or how far off the path we are, there is a way back and He wants us back.  He asks much of those who follow Him and little of those who don't.  When we take His name upon us, we change, we are responsible for our knowledge, we know better. Our faith extends on the spectrum.

I would say that I desire to follow Jesus.  I try my best, but I am imperfect.  My efforts will always fall short and for me, there will always exist a room for improvement......I live in this room.  This room is filled with reminders of all that I've done wrong, all of my shame and mistakes, constant thoughts of guilt and how I can improve.  That sounds negative, but this room serves a very important purpose......it is a room of learning, both spiritual and temporal.  In this room also exists thoughts of gratitude and memories of all the times my prayers have been answered.  I do a lot of crying in this room......crying of sadness, compassion, anger, and joy.  I know that even though I am imperfect Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost have made frequent visits to my room of improvement by way of thought, feeling, nudges, inspiration, and even direct words to my mind.  I know with pure conviction of their existence.....this is the most important thing to remember while in my room of improvement. Many times, my life has been saved in different ways while in this room.   

Several months ago, a Kirby vacuum salesman came to my house, and I reluctantly let him and his trainee in to clean my floor knowing there was no way I was ever going to buy one.......never say never!!  Often times I feel like Lucy Ricardo in the Sales Resistance episode, haha!  I get so many solicitors in my neighborhood, it's crazy! I've gotten used to making a speech about how broke I am, how busy I am, how annoyed I am............ Well, it turned out this vacuum was amazing and would be a great investment, but I sent them away without a sale.  I told them they didn't need to sale me on the greatness of a Kirby......Grandma always had a Kirby......it was one of her favorite things.  I might bet everything I own on her house being the cleanest house in Cedar City.  Her house never saw dirt or dust. "Dust bunny......cobweb......what are those?"  Her house might say if it could talk!  I still thought the price was astronomically outrageous!  I wonder if they inflate the price so much above the real price that they can sell it to you for $1500, they still make money, and you feel like you are getting a great deal!!  I get that the salesman won't make as much commission if the price is lower, but if he has more sales, he might get a bonus or a free vacation or something!  

A few months after I sent the salesman and his trainee on their way, I was thinking about that all-in-one machine.....actually I was fantasizing about it and how it might make my life so much easier! A few days later who shows up at my doorstep?  A Kirby salesman needing to clean my house to earn points toward a free vacation!! Haha!  I told him I'd had this presentation a few months earlier and had no money.  He played the poor salesman in 100 degree weather card.  "It would be nice if I could just get out of the sun for awhile.....AND I'll clean your house!"  Okay so he won me over when he won over my kids......"This guy is good", I thought.  He was really nice!  I was pretty weirded out though too.....that I had just been thinking of it, I took it as a sign that this was my second chance!!  If they'd sell it for $1500 or less I should take it!  Haha!  By the way my husband was surprised I didn't buy it the first time around!  He's just as bad as me if you're wondering!  When he saw the Vitamix demonstration at Costco years ago he was practically selling it for them a few hours later......haha.....and he thought he'd have to convince me.  We were newly married so little did he know that I can be a big spender when it comes to making my life easier with a high-quality product........within reason......of course!

Well, this salesman did everything right, especially NOT being pushy, I hate that!  I felt like I had a close friend by the end!  He played with my kids, made us laugh........and we talked about Jesus!  That was pretty cool!  He told me God led him to this job and to Utah!  He said God wanted him to meet the Mormons!  He was from Ohio.  I don't know what religion he was, if any, but he was a follower of Jesus Christ.  I don't really know exactly what to make of all of that, but there was something that felt non-coincidental about it, like divine design, like I needed this miracle, or maybe he did too.  $1500 vacuum......pish posh.......It's all about sharing my testimony!!  God gave me this really cool missionary miracle!!

About a month before miracle number 1, I got a solar panel salesman.  I gave my speech, but he thought I still should talk to someone and get a quote.  Okay, okay, so I'm not against getting information, so I made an appointment.  I was really busy and tired, I had been working 9 days in a row, 10-hour shifts and I really didn't want to spend time with a ......salesman, blah! So right before the appointment I was preparing my speech "I'm broke, blah, blah, blah. I only have an hour, so we better get to the point quick, I'm not sold on the idea of going solar, blah, blah, blah!!" The doorbell rings and I open the door very confident and ready to give my rejection speech in the nicest way possible, only to find a very tall man.  Kind of intimidated, I let him in without a word.  As I'm walking up the stairs I think "he looks familiar.....he looks a lot like Jesus!"  I'm immediately shut up......I calm down and suddenly I forget my speech.  

He comes in and sits down in my living room, My husband joins us because unlike most days that I'm

home, he happens to be home on this day.  We start talking and he doesn't talk solar, he talks to just genuinely get to know us. He tells us his story of Greek background, acting and modeling for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.....yes he has portrayed Jesus Christ in portraits for famous artists and other productions of the church.  He just sits and tells us stories!  He and my husband talk as if they are old friends, he really understood my husband.....many don't, but he somehow understood him.  It reminded me a bit of what it might be like if Jesus really was in my house.  Instead of being a time of stress and feeling like I was wasting my time muddling through the presentation, it was a very relaxing, calming experience.  He gave us our quote and attempted to sell the solar for about 10 minutes.  He showed us his recent project of portraying Jesus singing hymns.  We listened to his video of Nearer My God to Thee, it was beautiful!  I soon forgot why he was here in my house, and I honestly didn't want him to leave.  We were learning so much from him and he was listening and understanding us.  We were strengthening each other through our testimonies of Jesus Christ. It was a miracle I'll have the privilege to not soon forget.

Back in June my car that I've driven for 14 years started having a lot of problems.  It seemed like we had to fix it about every month.  There was something always wrong with it.  That's the nature of older cars, I suppose.  It has been a great car for us and has run pretty well over the years.  For some reason, I can't remember why, but we parked it on our street for a few days.  We never park our cars on the street, but for some reason we moved it and then we just got lazy and didn't pull it into the driveway.  I went out to my car on the street one morning at about 5 am as per my usual morning ritual of going to work.  I get in and shift it into drive and press on the gas...........nothing happens.......it doesn't go anywhere!  I get out and notice that the front driver's side is jacked up onto a cinder block and my front tire is gone.  I did not notice this upon first entering my vehicle.  I went around the back side of my car to approach the driver's side.  It was also dark outside, so I did not notice the missing tire and the cinder block under my car. As I walked around the car, I saw the tire, hub cap, and bolts in the park strip next to my house. 

Interesting.......someone tried to steal my tire, or tires, but they left the one there.  Later we found out that our neighbor across the street saw some people around our car during the night, but he was not sure if it was us or someone else.  He turned on all of his lights and that was enough to spook them, I guess.  After my husband put the tire back on, I went to drive it to work the next day and I noticed there was something terribly wrong.  It was making weird sounds and I thought maybe the axel was broken.  I have driven a car with a broken axel before.........SCARY!  As I'm driving to work, I'm inclined to decrease my speed and I get there safely.  Later that day I call my husband to tell him I'm not sure I should drive it home.  He drove up to my work and his suspicions are proven correct.  The tire on the passenger side is lose, held on by one bolt.  Our thieves intended to take both of the front tires, and probably all of them.  We just did not think to check the other tires.  I realize I was lucky.......or heaven intervened on my behalf.  A week later the thermostat blew up and I decided it was time for a new car.  

Despite all the overtime I had been working and would be working, I still had financial limitations.  The car market was terrible, it was difficult to find anything under $20,000 that was decent or fairly new.  I prayed that I could find something that would get good gas mileage and had lower miles, under 100,000, and wasn't more that 6 or 8 years old, with a car payment less than $250 per month.  So, I was kind of asking for a needle in a haystack.  The next morning, I was looking at listings as I had every day that week when a 2016 Ford Fiesta popped up on my phone screen.  It seemed strange that it was suddenly there in the listings of my search. It wasn't there 10 minutes earlier or a day earlier.  It was a new listing, I just happened to see it minutes after the dealership posted it.  It had 49,515 miles and was $12,950, I thought "wow, that's it, that's the car, that's the answer to my prayer."  I immediately messaged the dealer and was able to see the car the next day and buy it the next day.  Something in me would have bought it on the spot site-unseen, because I knew God placed that in my sight at that moment and I felt it was mine before I even saw it in person.

After this summer of incredible miracles that have made my room of improvement quite pleasant, my mind reflected to some other miracles I have felt impressed to share.  I share these out of gratitude for my Lord and Savior and a loving Heavenly Father!  I've learned this past year that the best way to show my gratitude is to proclaim the works of Heaven, of God, and of Jesus Christ.  They truly do intervene in our lives.  The room of improvement is lonely sometimes, and if I'm honest, I've felt lonely much of my life.  I have felt very much alone in many instances in my life.  I often wonder why I felt so alone being born into a family of 6 people, or why I felt alone amongst many friends that I've had in my life...........maybe it's just me.  The truth is, I've never felt like I fit in anywhere, but maybe that was in part, my own perception of the world, and maybe I was wrong sometimes.  These two moments I share are two moments in which I felt desperate to not be alone.

When I was about 14 years old, I took a weightlifting class at my high school.  It was summer and it was in the morning.  One morning my mom dropped me off and I wanted to walk home to get more exercise and I felt pretty independent.  I could do this.  It was not that far, a few miles maybe, and it was Cedar City, it was a small town at the time.  My mom agreed.  On the way home, I was walking down a residential street with beautiful houses, it was a nice area, it was quiet.  I was approached by a man in a Jeep, he could have been in his 20s or 30s, I'm not sure.  He tried to convince me to get into his car.  He asked me if I needed a ride.  I didn't respond........the whole "don't talk to strangers" thing came in handy.  As I walked, he followed me, talking at me, telling me to get in his car.  I noticed the street was practically deserted.  My insides panicked, my stomach sank and I started to feel sick.  Just as I was planning a run to the nearest house to start banging and screaming on the front door, I said a silent prayer in my heart.  In my desperation there was nothing to do, but to plead to heaven and if I had to run and scream, I would!  I could scream, I was used to screaming, I was a difficult child!  This guy might be sorry!  I remember specifically praying that someone would walk out of their house or that more cars would come down the street.  As this guy continued driving slowly next to me and I continued to ignore him, suddenly cars, lots of cars, a whole line of them started down the road in both directions.  The man sped off in his Jeep!  I knew God in heaven heard my plea!  

When I was about 15 years old, I rode bikes up a walking/biking trail a couple blocks from my house.  This trail went up the mouth of the canyon, but it was off the mountain road.  It was beautiful and it followed a canyon creek that flowed down into the city.  I rode my bike up that trail with my Dad and brother every night for a summer.  The trail was always crowded with families and joggers and bikers.  It was always busy at this late time of day, maybe 5pm-8pm.  One day my Dad and brother didn't go for some reason, I decided to go anyway, by myself.  I had biked it alone before so no big deal.  This night was different.  As I started up the trail, I was enjoying myself, as always it was beautiful.  I saw a man in the distance, it was then that I noticed the trail was deserted, I had not seen a single person on my ride up to that point.  This man was dressed in all black, I passed him and started to feel something was terribly wrong.  I felt a darkness I had not experienced before.  I looked back and saw that he was standing there staring at me.  I had heard in previous years that there were devil worshippers in the canyon.  People would find mutilated animals and other weird things in a particular area in the canyon.  My mind immediately flew to those things I'd heard, whether they were rumors or something more, I wasn't sure at the time.  Something told me this man could be one of them.  As I continued up the trail my mind flooded with all the ways my life could be taken from me in this moment.  It was kind of like your life flashing before your eyes only you see yourself die in all these different ways.

Sorry if that's morbid, but it was real to me. Why were all of these things flooding into my head?  I can't really describe quite what I was feeling, but it felt kind of like a premonition that I was in immediate danger.  It was a gut feeling that left my stomach weak with sickness at knowing that something wasn't right.  It's like watching a suspenseful movie and the music nails you as the sub-woofer hits you at a really dramatic scene.  I felt the evil....there was something evil, it wasn't just a feeling of loneliness.  Someone might think, "oh it's just your imagination!"  That's what I thought, trust me!  I got to the end of the trail and stopped, taking in all that just circulated my heart, my body and my spirit.  Something told me I could not go back down that way to get home.  After a minute I calmed down and I did think that maybe I was just imagining something that was not there.  I started back down the trail only to stop again.  I heard the word STOP go through my mind and my heart.  I thought for a minute and argued with myself.  I was scared to use the mountain road because it was only 2 lanes, narrow, windy and very dangerous if you are not an experienced mountain biker.  I kept thinking that if I took that road, I would surely get hit by a car.  Then I thought, "well the road is not that far up the canyon, I could probably make it down."  Again, I started down the trail............I honestly don't remember if I pressed the brakes or the bike just stopped due to an unseen power, but I stopped suddenly as if hitting a wall........the voice was louder "S-T-O-P"!  I heard audibly, "you can't go that way"!  This time I listened, but not before thinking some more and gaining courage to take the narrow, windy road.  

I finally came to a realization that I could choose that path again, but I had been strongly warned not to.  I took the mountain road and made it home.  I curled up in my bed and just thought about what could have happened, what would have happened if not for the unseen help, I had that day.  I stayed silent about the matter because I did not want to scare my parents and I understood this was something I had to experience and learn from.  It was for me and me only.  It was me only on that trail arguing with the Holy Ghost in my pride and thinking I knew it was a figment of imagination.  I've pondered on my foolishness in that moment, my pride and am eternally grateful I chose the right course.  Both courses were scary.  One was toward certain evil, the other was just scary because I'd have to really pay attention and trust that drivers would not hit me.  I sort of had to trust God that He would help me be safe on that road. In the end I did what was right, God showed me what was right perhaps to save my life, or to save me from a major hardship brought on by going toward the evil.

In the pondering of this interesting compilation of miracles I am grateful to a loving Heavenly Father, a loving Savior, and a loving Holy Ghost that guides and directs.  Through the 1st miracle, God showed me the importance of missionary work.  If I pray for it, God will make things work for me so I can share His great gospel.  I was shown the importance of uniting with others of different faiths through our common love of Christ and God.  I learned that there is much to learn from others if we are humble enough to receive it.  God showed me that I can testify in daily conversation with anyone willing to talk to me.

The 2nd miracle gave me the unique opportunity to ponder on what it would be like if the Savior was in my house.  What would I say?  How would I act?  What would I do?  How would I feel?  I felt God's love during this miracle.  I am grateful that I had a glimpse of what it would truly be like to host the Savior in my home.  It was a good reminder to keep my house prepared for that very thing.  If I make my home worthy of the Savior's entrance, then it truly can be heaven on earth, it can be a place of peace and a place that reminds us daily to keep Christ at the center of our lives.

The 3rd miracle showed me that God listens to my prayers even for the most temporal and mundane things of life.  I now know that He cares about my well-being and my ability to get to work.  He cares about the things that I care about.  If it's important to me, then He cares.  It showed me that God knows me personally and provides for me.  He provides well too.  My new car is great!  God can help me shop for cars anytime!

The 4th miracle proved to me that my life is important, that I am a Child of God.  It again showed me that God really does hear and answer prayers.  When there is possibly nowhere else to turn and you have done all you can do, you can leave it in His hands.  I did what I was taught by ignoring the man, I made a plan in my head and was ready to use it and then I plead to God in desperation for help!

The 5th miracle showed me that real evil exists and the devil is real!  The devil seeks to destroy all that is good, people, families, religion, worshippers of Jesus Christ.  It showed me that the Holy Ghost's still, small voice can be louder and audible.  This miracle showed me again that my life has a purpose and for reasons I may not fully know, I was meant to be saved.  God has taught me that He has a plan for me, that I am meant to be here, alive and that there is a purpose.  I know that I am meant to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and make His deeds known among the people of all nations.  This blog post may not reach that many, but even if it reaches just a few, its purpose is served.  Each individual is important and has purpose, God cares about the individual.      

Maybe you have experienced similar miracles.  If something has happened to you that maybe can't be explained..........maybe one of those "I was lucky" moments, maybe it was divine intervention.  Whether you can explain it or not, God is real and acknowledging Him will only bless your life. 

God Bless!