Innholdsfortegnelse for Apr/May 2023 i Mysterious Ways

One thing working at Mysterious Ways for the past few years has taught me is that there’s no such thing as coincidence. So I don’t think it’s an accident that I ended up where I am today. Though at the start, it felt as if I had just stumbled into another interesting place to work. I was only a few years out of college. I’d tried my hand at celebrity news reporting and a few other publications—all interesting enough, but none of them really spoke to me. So I sent my résumé out to dozens of places in search of work that offered more. Work that would really engage me. Then I got the Guideposts interview and the job. From my first day in our old New York offices, I…

I turned onto the dirt road in Key West, Florida, looking forward to an early morning walk. I was far from home—some 5,000 miles from Anchorage, Alaska—but it felt good to get away. Especially after the difficult year I’d had. I thought I’d met the perfect man. We’d gone to school together, and he’d swept me off my feet. Before long, we started shopping for engagement rings. Then, out of nowhere, he changed. His temper flared, and he lashed out at me for the littlest things. I finally ended the relationship. I knew I’d made the right decision, but I couldn’t help wondering where it had all gone wrong. As I continued my walk, I saw someone else step onto the dirt road. It was a woman, coming my way. As…

No person can become strong without struggle, without the effort of pitting himself against trouble and hardship. And to meet and deal with life creatively we will always need to be alert and thoughtful and to think in a positive manner, constantly rallying personality forces into effective and desirable action.Norman Vincent Peale CO-FOUNDER OF GUIDEPOSTS I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.John 16:33 A happy life consists not in the absence but in the mastery of hardships.Helen Keller Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for…

My daughter, Michelle, and I walked through the dollar store, browsing the Easter gifts and decorations. I pushed the cart while Michelle led the way. She picked up one item after another, returning each to the shelves without interest. I could see that her heart wasn’t in our Easter shopping trip this year. Not without her grandma at her side. Michelle missed her so much, and I didn’t know how to comfort my daughter in her grief. My parents had lived in Wisconsin for many years. Growing up, Michelle saw them during summer breaks from school and talked to them in phone calls, but distance made it hard to develop the close grandparent-grandchild relationship we all wanted. After Dad died, my mom decided to move closer to us in Iowa.…

Though there is no true center of the universe—at least not one that can be calculated—there is a spot in Oklahoma that claims the title. Marked by a circle of bricks in downtown Tulsa, the “Center of the Universe” is a bizarre acoustic phenomenon. If you stand in the middle of the circle and make a noise, the sound echoes back much louder. However, the sound is dampened for anyone standing just outside the circle. To people just a few feet away, the sound will be distorted and quieter. While theories abound as to how and why this acoustic vortex exists, there is no clear consensus on the matter. It remains a mystery.…

I pulled up to the intersection at Market Street. The roads were busy that day. People were out running errands or spending time with family. Just like us. I drove with my wife and my son-in-law’s mother in the car. We were on our way to meet our kids for lunch. As my companions chatted, I looked ahead at the moving traffic. I had always been a fast goer. When I had the right of way, there was no hesitation. Our light was green, so I immediately pressed down harder on the gas pedal— “Slow down.” I heard the voice in my left ear. It was a man’s voice. I knew it well. I’d heard it a few times in my life. It had always provided me comfort and safety. I…

“Yolanda, you need to report to the school office,” my teacher said, her expression somber. What’s going on? I thought, as I gathered up my things. Am I in trouble? The year was 1975. It was my senior year at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Newark, New Jersey. What I didn’t know at the time was that that Tuesday in February would change my life forever. At the office, I was told I needed to go home right away. There had been an accident. My mother was in the hospital. That’s all anyone could tell me. My mind raced as I hurried home. Mom was a community service worker for the Newark Pre-School Council. On a normal weekday, that’s where she should be. What had happened? When I…

The river swirled as we headed into the last major rapid of the day, Hospital Bar, a wicked Class III thrill ride that would cap an amazing afternoon of rafting. I couldn’t wait. “Get ready!” I yelled to my husband, George, sitting across from me at the front of the raft. It was like being in the first seat of a roller coaster, an adrenaline rush like no other. Twelve of us were on the river together, good friends we had rafted with for years. Four big guys were in the back of our raft. The others were in their own raft directly in front of us, including our 17-year-old son, Justin. I was excited for him to share the camaraderie of braving Northern California’s American River with our group, a…

Blueprints for my next construction job were spread out on the kitchen table before me, but I couldn’t focus on them. My mind was on a different kitchen table, one I hadn’t seen in decades. “What are you thinking about?” my wife, Arbutis, asked me. She could always tell when my mind was somewhere else. “I had that same dream again last night,” I said. “Night after night, the same dream.” “The one about your grandmother?” “That’s the one.” In the dream, I was sitting at Mamaw’s kitchen table. I recognized it right away. When I was growing up, I spent summers with Mamaw. In the dream I was alone at the table—or at least I seemed to be. I could hear Mamaw’s voice speaking to me, but she wasn’t…

I volunteer at my church as a youth group leader for the high school boys. One week, my co-leader and I decided to split them into two smaller groups so we could give the boys a chance to discuss what was happening in their lives. As we sat down, there came a whisper in the back of my mind. “Talk to him.” Talk to who? I thought, looking at the boys in front of me. There was no response, so I just brushed it off. When our time was up, I noticed one of the boys moving slower than the rest—Connor. Was something wrong? The next week, Connor still seemed down. But I didn’t know what to say. What if I made it worse? That night, I had a dream.…

“Pray, hope and don’t worry. Worry is useless. Our merciful Lord will listen to your prayer.”—PADRE PIO As a child, Padre Pio (1887–1968) often spoke of a close relationship with his guardian angel, whom he affectionately referred to as Angelino, Italian for “little angel.” At 15, the boy joined the Capuchin Order of friars. When he fell ill two years later, a fellow friar claimed to witness him in spiritual ecstasy, levitating above the ground. Padre Pio’s health eventually improved, and he became an ordained priest. In addition to receiving the stigmata—the wounds of Jesus—this Christian mystic is said to have performed bilocation, the extraordinary ability to be in two places at once. Numerous people from across the world attested to his mysterious gift. Padre Pio is remembered for his deep…

Fort Worth, Texas Christina Sadberry was adopted when she was three months old. She began searching for her biological family in 2006. Christina found her birth mother, but she didn’t know who the biological father was. After taking a 23andMe test in 2014, Christina was matched only with distant cousins. Then, in 2021, she finally found what she was looking for. Raymond Turner, who was raised by his maternal grandmother, wanted to learn more about his African roots. His wife gave him a 23andMe kit, and the results of the test shocked him. Raymond had a half sister through his biological father. It was Christina. The two made another shocking discovery. Christina’s 11-year-old son has nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder that requires frequent visits to Fort Worth’s Cook Children’s Hospital, where…

The pounding on the front door of our house is what woke me early that morning. Still rubbing sleep from my eyes, I found my neighbor on the doorstep, panicked and out of breath. “Fire, Bob!” he said. “There’s a fire! You’ve got to get out!” I could smell the smoke in the air. Wildfires in California were a constant threat. I knew we needed to evacuate. As I ran to wake my wife, Helen, the house phone rang. It was our grandson, Logan. “Grandpa, I can see the smoke from here,” he said with urgency in his voice. “You can stay with us.” Logan and his family lived nearby, 11 miles away. He offered to come get us, but I told him firmly to stay away. We’d come to him.…

Victoria L. Thurman “Jeremy’s in jail. You should write to him.” Susie’s words were surprising. I hadn’t seen Jeremy in more than a decade, back when Susie and I worked at a catering company. Her 11-year-old nephew, Jeremy, liked to hang around the kitchen. I knew he had problems at home, so I always tried to make him smile. He’s not going to remember me, I thought. But a week later, I felt a sudden urge to write to him. “I don’t know if you remember me,” I wrote, “but I always thought you were a great kid, and I know you have a good heart. I’m thinking of you.” Jeremy’s reply came within a few days. “I thought you’d forgotten all about me,” he wrote. I continued to write…