Providence

I almost called this post "Serendipity," but why should I be embarrassed to use the word I really mean?

I've felt lately that God is preparing me for a change. It doesn't have to be major, but I feel I'll choose to do something to add more usefulness and satisfaction to my life and develop myself in a way that God would like to see.

Yesterday, I bought the novel Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, on my Kindle. Right away, I loved it. I felt that somehow God has something to say to me through Leif Enger.

Sometimes a book comes at just the right time to be powerful in my life. It's not always something I can put into words, but somehow the themes of the book resonate with what's going on in my life at the time. I had that the first time I ever read War and Peace. I couldn't stop reading it and thinking about it.

Now, today, my sister sent me Leif Enger's next novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, not knowing I was already reading Leif Enger, which strengthens my feeling about his work.

I hope I don't lose this. There have been times when I thought God was leading me, but I didn't take him up on it. As St. Benedict says in his Rule: "Today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Ps. 95:8).