I am in a lot of pain this morning and will not be able to chair. I'm not sure what's going on with me, but may have to go to the ER later. I can't breath without it hurting. I had this mornings reading all prepared, so I'll post it and maybe ya'll will have time to read it before next Sunday. It's a long one this time! LOL

A Change of Venue (11-2-2014)

Although I was brought up totally immersed in my church, choir, and youth group, I completely rejected the establishment once I left home in 1960. At last I was free from the dictates of my parents. I once worked out that I had sat through 1,000 sermonds and could only remember two! This did not seem very inspiring.
Consequently, I developed a very cynical attitude. Basically, I felt that I didn't need anything my church had to offer. Needless to say, I foudn the references to spirituality and God at Al-Anon meetings very uncomfortable. Becaue I was so desperate for help, I just tolerated the uncomfortable parts. I quickly learned to take what I liked
and leave the rest. After a while, I heard people referring to strange coincidences that indicated to them the presence of a Higher Power. As usual, I politely listened. In my typically suspicious way I simply put such things down to chance. Fortunately, I kept coming back. I even began to wonder if these strange coincidences were starting
to happen to me. I noticed little things that went my way, such as traffic lights when I was in a desperate hurry. I even received an unexpected promotion. One day I was being given a lift home from London and was in a desperate hurry to get to my Monday meeting. I didnt' say anything for a while but quietly calculated that I could get there
provided I was dropped off at the meeting place in town and not at my home. As the journey proceeded, I figured that I could make it, so I asked my friend and neighbor if he coudl drop me off at the church. Sure enough, theobvious response came back: "I didn't know you were into chruches." I thought, "Help!" I'm going to get dragged into a
conversation that I don't want here."

"Well, I'm not really," I said. "I just go to the odd meeting there, that's all. Anyway, what have you got on this evening?" I was desperately trying to change the subject.
"Oh nothing," came the reply, followed by a pause. Then he asked, "What sort of meetings are they?" Again I tried to think of ways to deflect the line of inquiry, fearing that I was going to break my wife's anonymity.
"They're just sort of a self-help group, that's all," I said, trying to change tack. "Anyway, this traffic is hopeless, isn't it? I think the best bet is just to scrub the church and head for home."
When he obligingly said, "OK," this time I thought I had succeeded. Then he paused while his mind rewound a bit. "But these meetings-what are they and what do you talk about?"
He won. I went on to explain, as sensitively as I could, what Al-anon was and how it had helped our family come to terms with my wife's drinking and her eventual leaving.
"Oh," he replied, "I had no idea." A long pause followed as my neighbor though hard. With a tremble in his voice, he began to describe a desperate and sad story of his life with an actively alcoholic wife, the story that we
in Al-Anon know so well. I interrupted him gently.

"Tell you what, you said you had nothing on tonight, so why don't you come to my place and we'll have a chat?" He accepted and I had my Al-Anon meeting after all. I recounted this tale at my next meeting and still very, very cautiously, mind you, put it forward as a "sign" of a Higher Power who knew I needed a meeting and that my neighbor needed help.
An Al-Anon friend who had listened intently to my short story was moved to cut in. "I don't' think that is a sign at all," he said, with eyebrows raised on his slowly shaking head. "I think that is positive proof!"
With that, my quest for a spiritual dimension ot my life moved forward one more step.

England.

When have my plans been rearranged by what felt like the influence of a Higher Power?