Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2020 i Mysterious Ways

Do you ever feel as if you’re being reminded to have faith? I know I do. Sometimes, when faced with a problem, I immediately want to take action and resolve it, as if I alone manage the outcome. But then some-thing reminds me that I’m not in charge and that it’s better if I just do my part and have faith that the rest will work out. Recently, for example, I found myself unexpectedly in need of a new roommate. I was under pressure to find someone—and fast. The news could not have come at a worse time. Within just days, I was set to leave on a 10-day vacation out of the country, a trip I’d been planning for months. But right on the verge of panic, I was…

I stood near the railing of the ferry as it skimmed over Lake Erie toward the small island of Put-in-Bay. The eight of us—my mother-in-law, Judy; husband, Eric; our five kids and I—would be spending the week there. It was our first vacation in more than two years. I should’ve been excited. Instead, all I felt was crushing guilt. My father-in-law, Larry, had recently passed away. We’d helped care for him over the past couple years. I’d spent the weeks since his death feeling ashamed of myself for my relief at no longer having to look after Larry, a man I loved as if he were my own father. As I surveyed the sparkling waters of the lake, my kids chattering excitedly in the background, all I could think was…

The pain wasn’t the first thing I thought of as I woke up that morning in my hotel room in Vilnius, Lithuania. But when I sat and swung my legs out of the hotel bed, I was quickly reminded. I winced as my feet hit the floor. A sharp burn shot up through my legs. I had hoped it would have subsided by now. No such luck. When I’d agreed to tag along with my sister-in-law’s choral group on an Eastern European tour, I hadn’t expected to be in pain the whole time. It was a nine-day trip with performances in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I’d never been there before. I bought a stack of travel guides and mapped out everything I wanted to see. I was so excited. But…

“The fear of the Lord, the gift of the Holy Spirit, doesn’t mean being afraid of God, since we know that God is our Father that always loves and forgives us.… [It] is no servile fear but rather a joyful awareness of God’s grandeur and a grateful realization that only in him do our hearts find true peace.”Pope Francis “We must fear God out of love, not love him out of fear.”Saint Francis de Sales “Fear God, yes, but don’t be afraid of him.”J. A. Spender, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR “We cannot separate trust in God from the fear of God. We will trust him only to the extent that we genuinely stand in awe of him.”Jerry Bridges, AUTHOR OF THE JOY OF FEARING GOD “The most spiritual and sanctified minds,…

Jessica Reed Last Christmas, cash was tight for my grown daughter and me. So we made a pact: no presents! But as the holiday drew closer, I found my resolve wavering. Out shopping one day, I came across a set of bath supplies in a beautiful golden box. It caught my eye, probably because it was something I’d get for myself. It wasn’t too pricey, so I bought it. On Christmas Eve, my daughter was surprised to learn I’d broken our pact. But then so had she! I gave her the gift from me to open first. She instantly recognized the golden packaging. It was the same bath set she’d gotten me. Mandy de Leon I used to teach salsa lessons at a local dance studio. Once, the owner of…

I thought I knew about Saint Patrick. The guy who banished snakes from Ireland, then converted everyone to Christianity by noting that the three-leaf clover was a perfect symbol of the Trinity. He performed many miracles. Because of that, there’s a big parade down New York’s Fifth Avenue on March 17, and all the bars serve green beer, right? Well, not quite. The real Saint Patrick—or Patricius, to use his given name—proved far more interesting. I learned about him in my friend Tom Cahill’s bestselling book How the Irish Saved Civilization. Contrary to myth, Patrick did not rid Ireland of snakes—the Emerald Isle never had any—and though he might have used the three-leaf clover in a sermon, the greatest miracle he ever performed is what God made of his life.…

“God does not stop to rest, for he is a spirit and cannot tire; he cannot want for light, for he hath all light in himself.”—SOJOURNER TRUTH (1797–1883) Sojourner Truth championed the rights of women and African-Americans in the United States—a mission informed, she said, by her talks with God. Born into slavery in New York State as Isabella Baumfree, young Sojourner ventured into the woods daily to speak with God, who empowered her eventual escape to freedom. Later she experienced a profound vision: “The whole world grew bright, an’ the trees…waved in glory, an’ every little bit o’ stone on the ground shone like glass.” God revealed he “pervaded the universe,” filling her with a love she’d never felt before. She devoted her life to activism and preaching and…

The dream was vivid. I can still recall it perfectly some 10 years later. My mother had passed away years before, but in my dream Mom was standing before me, smiling and luminous. She needed a ride to the train station, she explained. She was taking a trip with a friend. But when my mother and I arrived at the station, the platform was empty. No one was there to meet her. “Mom, who’s meeting us?” I asked. She didn’t answer. I heard a whistle in the distance. The train was coming. Suddenly I noticed another woman standing next to Mom. I knew this was the one we’d been waiting for. Together we boarded the train when it arrived. For some reason, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t…

I drove slowly back from the store, content to go below the speed limit. I was in no hurry to get home. No one would be there waiting for me. Only a few weeks into my new life as a single woman, my studio apartment was still a maze of stacked cardboard boxes and chaos. It felt so empty. Especially now that Ginger was gone. My dachshund had come to live with me after the divorce. Ginger had always been an anxious little thing with boundless energy. Deep down, I knew she wasn’t cut out for apartment living. But it was the first time I’d be living alone in more than a decade. I really needed the company, and I hoped that she’d adjust. But it hadn’t gone well. Ginger…

Northwestern Slovenia’s Bled Island, at the center of Lake Bled, is steeped in mystery and tradition. Perched atop the islet is the seventeenth-century Church of the Assumption of Mary and its famous wishing bell. According to legend, the original bell was commissioned by a grieving sixteenth-century widow to honor her husband. But the boat carrying the bell to the island sank, taking the sailors with it. Distraught, the widow moved to Rome and became a nun. Rumor has it that the pope himself was so touched by her plight that he had a new bell made, declaring that any believer in God who rang it three times would have one wish granted. Today the chapel is a popular wedding venue. It’s said that the groom who carries his bride up…

My date, Lisa, and I were huddled in the pitch black on a wooded ridge in the Colorado Rockies. All around us were rocks and sheer drops. We’d lost the trail. We were still a mile or more from the car. And it was getting colder by the minute. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten us into this mess. I’d met Lisa through a family friend and invited her to hike Eagle Peak with me as our first date. I felt responsible for our safety and guilty that I’d put both of us in danger. After all, I should’ve known better than to hike so close to night-fall without any flashlights or heavy jackets. I was a junior at the nearby Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. A former Eagle Scout…

I sat on the bed with a handful of my mother’s drugs. Little white pills cupped in my 12-year-old hand. This will end the pain, I thought, moving the tablets around with my thumb. My parents were out to dinner. I had raided their medicine cabinet for whatever I could find. I was pretty sure that if I took enough of everything, I could end it all. I was tired of feeling so alone and so mis-understood. We were the only practicing Jewish family in my suburban town of Durham, North Carolina, in 1966. But it often felt as if we were the only ones in the whole South. My father was an immigrant from Eastern Europe, the son of a rabbi. My mother was from Brooklyn. They both spoke…

Army Sergeant Roger Williams pulled into the Sparta Floral & Green-houses parking lot in Sparta, Wisconsin. His car had started over-heating just after leaving Fort McCoy. Then the battery light on his dashboard came on—he had to stop. Roger called a fellow sergeant, Justin McCarthy, who arrived with three other sergeants: Ryan Cameron, Eric Juhl and Daniel McElroy. As they were inspecting Roger’s car, they heard screeching tires. Just feet away, a car careened through the intersection and smashed into a utility pole, causing a transformer to explode and filling the car with smoke. David Turner and his granddaughters, four-year-old London and two-year-old Delilah, were trapped inside. The five sergeants jumped into action. They pulled the man and the two children from the car. It turns out David crashed after…