Workday miracles: Your good fortune as part of a bigger plan
Just the idea that life includes miracles is an excitingly optimistic view that fills our minds with endless possibilities and our hearts with a warm sense of connection.
AS I SEE IT
By Rev. Jim Innes
I often spot animals crossing the highway while driving to my early Sunday church service.
Some animals, like coyotes, dash across the road in quick order, while others, like wild turkeys, tend to saunter. It’s a wonder that more animals are not killed and that more motorists are not injured. After many years in this area, it’s a miracle I have not been side-swiped or forced off the road.
Perhaps my safe drive (so far) can best be credited to some pattern of good luck, animal instinct, and driver caution. Whatever the reason, it feels more hopeful to assign this lack of incident to a cosmic plan… a miracle!
As I see it, a miracle is just as valid of an explanation as any tangible reason for an event. It feels incredibly inspiring to think that my good fortune is part of a bigger plan. The only thing I can’t be sure of is whether my accident-free miracle is meant for me or the specific animal!
Whatever the case, miracles change the course of events for everyone. Just the idea that life includes miracles is an excitingly optimistic view that fills our minds with endless possibilities and our hearts with a warm sense of connection.
Obviously, those who don’t believe in a higher power will not buy into this sense of the miraculous. Equally skeptical are those who do not think that the higher power (whatever its description) affects world events. However, for the rest of us, miracles can be understood as amazing displays of affection.
Someone who says that miracles never happen to them is probably holding back due to some sense of shame. As I see it, we are all equally cared for, whether by a loving God in heaven or God's all-inclusive and systemic energy in nature.
Miracles are events that we can fail to perceive as miracles. Sometimes, they happen before the benefit arrives, like the fallen tree that slowed the deer down before it met the traffic or the coyote that scared the rabbit to run faster across the road.
These examples also describe how miracles can be misinterpreted as problems, even tragedies. One might be inclined to complain that the fallen tree is another of life’s inconveniences or that the roaming coyote is another of life’s monsters.
The truth is, they are all that and even more!
If we expand the idea that miracles can happen frequently, we reveal a purposeful existence. Life becomes more than a hardship to endure but a destiny worth pursuing, albeit not always comfortable and smooth.
The idea of miracles doesn’t make us any less accountable for our choices. We still must take responsibility for the outcome of our actions. For example, I still need to drive carefully to work on Sunday mornings.
However, the idea of miracles can make our choices an exciting journey with others. The idea of miracles can uplift our sense of living in a close-knit (systemic) world and bless us with a resiliency that opens us to compassion otherwise misplaced as self-reliance or, worse yet, self-interest.
Rev. Jim Innes is the rector of St. John's, Grand Bend with St. Anne's, Port Franks.