Minor miracles/answered prayers

Have you ever raised your voice to the gods (or god, or goddess) in prayer without any expectation of answer and been surprised?

Times are hard right now. I spent over a year off with a workplace spinal injury, and came back to layoffs. Having been laid off right on return, it seems no employer is in a rush to take a chance on a worker with a known spinal injury, so finances are not tight, they are terrifying.

I had ten dollars in my account, and needed gas to make it until Monday (part time job payday), and I raised my eyes to the pre-dawn sky and cried out "Gods, all I want is a full tank of gas and a cup of coffee!" As I squeezed the nozzle for a few seconds and hopefully almost a quarter tank of gas, I half drifted off (uncaffinated). The pump seemed to be taking forever, and I looked at the indicator which was reading 0.35 just as the pump cut out. Crudstuckers. I come for my last ten bucks in gas and after all the running around all I got was thirty five cents.

Getting in the car I turn the ignition and spend several seconds in shock as my gas guage swings all the way against the pin, well past the full mark. I got my coffee, and raised it high to the gods in thanks for their answered prayer. With the unused money I got milk to tide us over until Monday, and another coffee to bring home to my wife.

I read once how the Jews celebrate a miracle involving an oil lamp whose day worth of feul stretched to eight days to see them through the cold desert nights. Well, it seems Odin can play that trick too, and fill my tank for at least five days. When I read about the Jewish celebration I wondered why they celebrated such a minor miracle, but as of this morning I understand; it is the glimmer of light when you are lost in the dark, it is the promise of hope when despair weighs you down, it is honestly enough to keep you in the fight.

The gods are always listening, our prayers are heard, and the ones they choose to answer are for a reason.

How nice to hear that, John! I'm so glad that it happened. Yes, it is very touching when I rediscover that my gods do listen and sometimes they do marvelous things in my life.

What an amazing story! I've only heard christian stories of "miracles", and them being qualified with "see, that shows how our god is the only true god." Your story shows that the gods cared enough about your situation to give you a wonderful gift. I hope they bless you more with better employment. I know how you feel about the job situation. I've been in the same situation for quite a while, too.

A'men John.... talk about manna falling from the sky!

You're like a minority-faith version of Max Lucado. And I agree with DR, you were listened to and blessed in a very personal and meaningful way.

Yeah, I understand that.

I was laid off in April of 09. I was finally working part-time in summer of '10 when my wife got laid off. During that time when we both were lacking full-time employment, things went from tight to torturous. I was at the fuel pump one morning looking at spending the last bit of money in my account for fuel and then skipping on groceries for a couple of days. I put the nozzle in the fill tube prior to running my card and such (in reverse order and quite out of character) to find that the pump was active without me doing a thing.

I put in what I'd expected to pay for and hoped that whomever had ended up paying for it could afford it. Made for a much better day for me. I'd not made an overt prayer, though earlier I had thought it'd be nice if one of the gods took notice and acted to help out a bit.

What a cool story, John! Now that your gods seems to be smiling upon you, ask for an improvement in the employment situation! Who knows...maybe it'll work!

Beribee wrote:What a cool story, John! Now that your gods seems to be smiling upon you, ask for an improvement in the employment situation! Who knows...maybe it'll work!

Oh, I have no doubts but that it can.

My god-boosts tend to come in the form of the perfect home for me, maybe because rootedness in a cozy home is so important to Scorpios, and I'm a triple-Scorp.

Anyway, after I went New Age about 35 years ago, I got in the habit of doing creative visualization. Small things and pleasant perks manifested for me regularly. Then, when it came time to go off to grad school in Santa Fe, NM 25 years ago, I was panicked about finding a place to live. There was dorm space only for undergrads, so grad students couldn't live in a dorm unless they had special needs. I didn't know the city; the college gave no help at all in finding a place, and I was really at a loss where to start looking.

But, I'd done some research so had a vague idea of what areas were most likely for me to find something affordable even though probably not terribly comfy.

I decided I'd send up my colored bubble visualization to find the absolute best place for me. Didn't help much on my first housing hunt trip. No luck at all.

So, I gave it a boost before heading out two weeks before school began, knowing I simply HAD to find a place to live because I was at the point of do it or live in my tent for who knew how long.

One morning, money being a bit tight, I noticed that day's classifieds lying beside a payphone, open to the ads for apartments to rent, no one around whose paper it might be. My eye went immediately to the fourth one down the list. I knew instantly that this was it. Even saw a colored flash from the ad with mind's eye.

Called the landlady. Well, I probably couldn't even get in to see it yet since the listing had appeared for the first time that day, the tenant was at work, and the landlady needed to notify her that the apartment would be shown. But she'd see what she could do, so just meet her at the apartment in a couple hours.

To make a long story shorter, it was a tiny, beautifully decorated studio with several Santa Fe style touches I loved on sight. In an early-20th century brick house with a private entrance and only about three blocks from the Plaza, the center of downtown Santa Fe. The most perfect location imaginable so that I wouldn't have to drive much at all. I was fit enough that I often hiked the 3.5 miles up into the foothills to the campus. Great and scenic walk!

And the tenant even managed to move out a few days earlier than she'd planned since I started school right after Labor Day. I got mostly settled in over that weekend and was all ready for classes.

So, when we knew we were moving to St. Louis, I told hubby I was sending up the color bubble for the perfect apartment. Our search agent gave us a list of a half dozen that met our needs. We looked at two which wouldn't have worked well at all or simply didn't suit. Another was a no-go on sight. The fourth was the one we live in, and it is absolutely perfect for us, very well-maintained, reasonably quiet, lovely surroundings. The bubble did it!

The agent was astounded that we found what we wanted in only about six hours. She said most people take four days at the very least, usually a week or more.

The gods provide if you put yourself on the path and cooperate.