Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2020 i Mysterious Ways

I believe people have callings. That we’re all drawn to, pushed toward or given signs about the things we are meant to contribute in this life. Take my little brother, Ross. As a kid, he was fascinated with jet propulsion engines and air shows. When he was four years old, he had a favorite documentary. It was about trucks that had been retrofitted with jet engines. Race drivers sped the hybrid machines across the desert at super-fast speeds, deploying clusters of parachutes to slow down. He’d watch the video on repeat. One day, we had left-over balloons from a birthday party. Ross tied them around his waist, racing down our hallway with them, then re-leasing them behind him to “slow down.” Many other interests came and went—flying was the only…

The night I had the dream began like most nights—with me lying awake on my prison cot, each excruciating detail of my arrest and sentencing running through my head. It had been years since I’d been convicted for a crime I did not commit, but the entire ordeal was still fresh in my mind. As soon as I lay down in my cell to try to sleep, the replay would begin. This particular night started out no differently…. August 1984. It happened so early that the sun hadn’t yet risen. Violent pounding on the front door woke me. I stumbled toward it, half-awake. I opened the door, instantly blinded by flashlight beams. “Step outside, Mr. Bloodsworth!” someone shouted. What on earth? My eyes ached as they adjusted to the light.…

“Jesus promised: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened. No exceptions. God has an ‘open door’ policy with the universe. Billions of people pray in thousands of languages, all at the same time, and God hears each one. You included.” Jim Denison, AUTHOR “We pray because God created us to be in relationship, and relationship requires communication and communion. We pray to be with God.”Heidi Russell, PROFESSOR AND AUTHOR “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”1 John 5:14 (NIV) “The function of prayer is not to influence God but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” Soren Kierkegaard, PHILOSOPHER “When…

Ann Hopkins It was noon. I was in my kitchen, making lunch, as I did every day at this time, staring out of the room’s big picture window. My house is old and requires frequent fixing. The latest repair? Replacing this window, a two-day job. The workmen had started it, then popped the window back into place for the day. They’d be back tomorrow to finish. Suddenly I was overcome with exhaustion. My eyes were practically falling shut. I turned off the stove and headed to my bedroom for a nap. No sooner had I closed my eyes when—CRASH! I ran toward the noise, then stopped short. A gust of wind had blown in the picture window! The kitchen was littered with glass. A large, six-inch piece like a dagger…

Take a gun and end it all, Sheryl, said a dark, mocking voice in the back of my mind. End it and all this pain and worry will be over. I didn’t even own a gun. I had been in the middle of my nightly routine when the strange thought popped into my head. Now I just sat on my bed, staring blankly at the wall. It felt as though a literal weight were pressing down on me. Suddenly something else snapped into focus in my mind, like mental whiplash. Not a thought, exactly, but an image. An imposing, rectangular shape. A billboard. Pushing aside the other thoughts until it was all I could visualize, looming over lanes of traffic. It had a black background with red lettering. Simple, straightforward.…

How many historic figures made positive impacts because they answered God’s call? Perhaps a call they’d heard during a mysterious experience such as having a vision or dream or hearing a voice? We might never know for sure. But Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), also known as the mother of modern nursing, was definitely one of them. Her revolutionary practices saved countless lives and paved the way for other women to pursue medicine. And it might not have happened had Florence not heeded God’s call. Florence came from a well-off English family, with a learned dilettante of a father and a socially ambitious mother. No one had to work for a living. They were free to read, to ride, to entertain and to travel. From the start, Florence’s native intelligence shone. She…

“There are many windows through which we humans, searching for meaning, can look out into the world around us.”—JANE GOODALL (1934–) As a child, famed primatologist and activist Jane Goodall, Ph.D., pored over her parson grandfather’s books. Their sense of awe and spirituality ultimately informed her groundbreaking work as a conservationist, much like the mystical experience she had at her chimpanzee research facility in Tanzania in 1981. Entranced by the forest’s splendor after a storm, she slipped into a state of “heightened awareness.” Colors, shapes and sounds held new intensity. Jane felt a oneness with everything, as if “an unseen hand had drawn back a curtain,” and sensed “a truth of which mainstream science is merely a small fraction.” That day, Jane gained a deeper perspective of the compatibility of…

Laurin Bellg has practiced medicine for more than 20 years, specializing in critical care. While working in intensive care units, she has encountered several patients who’ve had near-death experiences (NDEs). Her book, Near Death in the ICU, focuses on the importance of doctors listening to their patients’ mysterious experiences. Her interest in the value of these stories started with two inexplicable experiences: that of one of her first patients—and her own. The little girl looked familiar. She sat in the corner of my hospital room, staring out the window. She wasn’t looking at me or saying anything. She seemed serene. I found her presence uplifting after a harrowing week of being severely ill. But who was she? And what was she doing here in my hospital room? I’d been admitted…

“You’re taking the wrong prescription, Vallerie,” I said. “Get off that medicine!” I woke up with a jolt. I looked around the dark bedroom, confused. Just a dream, I thought. I hadn’t seen my friend Vallerie in years. Why was I dreaming about her now, and what did the dream mean? Vallerie and I had met at church when I lived in Virginia but drifted apart after I moved to Florida nine years before. We hadn’t had an actual conversation in ages. Our correspondence fizzled to annual Christmas cards. Then came this dream. Was I meant to contact Vallerie after all this time? Confused, I eventually fell back asleep. The next day, I tried to dismiss the urge to reach out to Vallerie. I didn’t want to alarm her. But…

The cruise ship Empress of the Seas was halfway between Grand Cayman and Jamaica. The ship had originally been headed for Cienfuegos, Cuba, but rough seas made this route too treacherous. Instead, the Empress changed course for the port of Ochos Rios, Jamaica, where the weather was calmer. That evening, the crew noticed a light off the starboard side of the ship. A small fishing boat came into view. Onboard were two Costa Rican fisherman. They’d been stranded at sea with little food or water for 20 days, drifting far from land after running out of gas. Crew members from the Empress of the Seas used one of the cruise liner’s shuttle boats to rescue the desperate fishermen. They were brought back to the ship and given medical attention. Though…