Wouldn’t it be great if we were born knowing all the right answers? Unfortunately, living in the real world means sometimes being steeped in doubt and indecision, uncertain how to proceed in certain situations. We often fail to trust our own judgment, even when it’s sound.
How do we know what the ‘right’ thing to do is?
I can’t speak for you, but there have been far too many times that I wished God would just show me a sign and tell me exactly what to do next.
I’d been contemplating big changes in my life. I was struggling to decide what to do about issues ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’, unsure how to proceed. Stymied and frustrated, I’d started looking for a sign that would tell me what to do next.
“Please, show me a sign!”
One of the many things I’d been contemplating was a job change- questioning whether there are future opportunities where I’m presently employed or if I should look for other opportunities. Then, I read a blog post by Lynn Curry, PhD on her Workplace Coach blog. Her post couldn’t have been any more perfectly timed; Every question I had asked myself was answered by her post.
Is that considered a clear ‘sign’?
Next, I experienced a series of ‘coincidences’ about the phrase ‘the writing on the wall’.
It started when I came across an old journal entry from a Therapy Thursday session a decade ago; In that session, we had discussed ‘the Writing on the Wall‘. (There’s a post about that here.)
Ever since then, the phrase had been rattling around in my mind for weeks as I contemplated the possibility that I didn’t necessarily need to be looking for signs because they could be right in front of me.
Shortly thereafter, the pastor of my online church discussed chapter 5 from the Book of Daniel (in the Holy Bible) as part of his sermon. Unsurprisingly, (in retrospect, anyway), that chapter in the Bible is about the writing on the wall.
Key points of the chapter involve:
- the fingers of man’s hand appearing from nowhere to write a message from God on the walls of the king’s palace,
- The king’s search for its meaning,
- a bunch of people who try to translate it, but can’t,
- Daniel, the only person who can translate the meaning (and does), and
- Daniel’s pronouncements coming to pass that very same evening.
While Daniel’s story in the Bible spoke of very clear outcomes, answers haven’t come as clearly to me. I suppose that’s what happens when you ask for a sign, one seemingly appears, and then you doubt the validity of it. Or, I might believe I am clearly being given a sign, but I don’t know what it means, so I still don’t know what to do.
And yet, I keep asking for signs.
Even as I was putting the finishing touches on this post, I was thinking about what type of graphic to use at the beginning of it. At the same time, my mind was running a thousand miles an hour, asking for… you guessed it – A SIGN. A sign that I’m on the right path. A sign that will answer my most pressing questions.
And it suddenly occurred to me that what I really want is the ‘answer key’ to this particular period in my life. The idea of an image of an answer key seemed like a good image to open with. As I scrolled through images, looking for a photo of a teacher’s answer key, this photo immediately caught my attention-
It’s called The 7 Mile Bridge, and it’s located in the Florida Keys.
Is it a coincidence that an image of the Florida Keys popped up? or is it a sign? After all, I’ll be heading there shortly. Does this mean that I’ll find the answers to the questions that have been plaguing me once I get there?
After all, what are are odds that when I typed “answer key” into the search bar of a website that provides over two million free images, this was the first photo that caught my eye? I have never been to Key West before, so I didn’t realize this picture was actually of the Florida Keys until I selected it and took a closer look.
I don’t have the answers to those questions, nor the others that have been plaguing me lately.
I’m going on faith that it is a sign, and I’m heading to the Keys to find answers.
1 Comment
I think we can call it by a variety of names/terms. At the end of the day, it comes down to learning how to trust your instincts. Looking within. The outside ‘signs’ are just trying to help you confirm what you inherently already know.