How God Used a Beaded Bracelet. Again.
Nine months ago I shared a mystical adventure that I had with a beaded bracelet. (You can read that blog, Down the Rabbit Hole, first if you want to refresh your memory.) This past weekend I had a similar experience. With that same beaded bracelet!
I was at an exciting three-day workshop with Thrive Academy that I had been fortunate enough to receive a free ticket to attend. During the last part of the second day, the facilitator began his offer for the other programs available through the company.
We had already heard from a panel of participants who had used the materials and resources and experienced very good results. There wasn’t anything in the advanced program that wasn’t interesting to me, so I was very motivated to sign up. I had reservations about investing that much money in myself at this time, though, so I was torn.
That day I had been wearing the beaded bracelet. During this last part of the day I realized that I had lost it. Again! Remembering the interesting way it had reappeared previously, I thought its disappearance was worth noting, so I bargained with myself, “If I find it on my way out of the building, that will be a sign that I should sign up and not worry about how I’ll make this work.” I looked through the room and various parts of the hotel where I had been that day with no success. “Okay,” I thought. “That’s my answer. It’s not for me.”
But on the way to a friend’s house where I was staying during this weekend away from home, I began to have a major “gatekeeper” attack. You know the kind: the unkind inner voice goes overboard with doubts, fear, frustration, desire, anger, self-criticism, rationalizations and excuses. It wasn’t pretty!
How could I not invest in myself–not have faith in myself–and believe and teach what I do? Yet, how could I commit to investing that much money during a challenging time? Was that fair to Amanda? To myself? Whew. My insides were churning.
I came to a place of peace later that night when I remembered that God has lots of ways of working things out in the right time. So if this wasn’t for me now, it didn’t mean never. As Dr. Michael Beckwith says, “Every delay is not a denial.” I was making myself miserable thinking that it had to be right now or I wouldn’t ever get the resources and coaching from these mentors I had come to respect and admire. There would always be another time.
I actually slept really well that night.
The next morning I stopped at the front desk to see if my bracelet had been turned in to lost and found. Nope. I still felt a little incomplete about my decision, so I decided that I would talk with the facilitator about my considerations if the opportunity arose to do so before the morning break: the deadline for signing up. Honestly, I was hoping for a Hail Mary pass where some option I hadn’t considered would work and I’d feel fine about it. He didn’t come into the room until we were beginning.
There was a Q & A time during the morning when people had the opportunity to bring up questions about the material, and a few people did use that time to process their conflicted feelings about signing up for more. I couldn’t get myself to raise my hand until we were out of time.
During the break I realized that I would not be going home feeling complete with the weekend if I didn’t address my feelings with someone and voice my commitment to participate in the future.
I couldn’t find our facilitator to do so, but I did talk with one of the assistants, who helped me a great deal. Just as we completed the conversation, I glanced at the table behind her. There was a small Lost and Found sign there that I hadn’t noticed before. And there it was on the table. The bracelet. Again. I said to her, “Has that been there the whole time we’ve been talking?” She said that she thought it had. I discovered it at just at the perfect moment to encourage me that I had made the right choice.
I suppose I could replace its clasp...but then how could the bracelet offer me more guidance. Hmmm...
Whenever you need to feel that you are known and loved by God, pay attention to the synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) in your life. They aren’t there by accident!
