If Only God Would Give Me a Sign!
to speak at
your next event!
Sneak Peak Inside If Only God Would Give Me a Sign! - EXCERPT #4
EPILOGUE
The truth is: signs are everywhere. What we really want to know is how to recognize the signs when they show up and how to discern, “Which signs are meant for me?” If you’re paying attention and are willing to trust your inner knowing, intuition will lead you to the sign that’s “got your name on it.” For example, mothers just know which baby is theirs in a hospital nursery filled with newborns. The little wrist tags on the infants are just there for the doctors, the nurses, and the dads. Signs are like that too. You’ll just know which sign is yours as long as you’re willing to keep your heart and your eyes open.
We miss a lot of signs because they aren’t what we want to see or hear. Signs get your attention. The rest is up to you. There are several good ‘tests’ for whether something is or is not a sign. I find the following examples particularly helpful (Feel free to substitute someone for something and vice versa):
- If something grabs your attention … it’s a sign.
- If something sends you into fits of laughter … it’s a sign.
- If something just gives you fits (of any kind) … it’s a sign.
- If something pushes all your buttons … it’s a sign.
- If something elicits any strong emotional reaction ranging from rapture to rage, from fight to flight … it’s a sign.
- If you’re told to be/do something that might make you a better person in the long run (especially in spite of yourself)… it’s a sign.
- If you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about a particular thing … it’s a sign.
- If you have the same dream (or some variation of that same theme) repeatedly, whether it’s three times or three hundred times … it’s a sign.
- If a book you’ve never heard of is given to you by three unrelated people as a Christmas gift … it’s a sign.
- If any book falls off the bookstore shelf, smashes your big toe, and opens ‘magically’ to the page with the message you need to read … it’s an urgent sign.
- If someone shows up in your life repeatedly (good or bad)… it’s a sign.
- If anything shows up in your life repeatedly, particularly within a short period of time … it’s a sign.
- If I’ll Be There comes on the radio while you’re mourning a recent breakup … it’s a sign.
- If a charismatic hottie with Hollywood good looks drives up in a red Ferrari, radiating unconditional love, spouting the consciousness of a Buddha, and magically shows up at your front door with a deluxe gift basket filled with dark chocolates … it’s a miracle, not a sign. (It’s important to recognize the difference.)
Every moment of every day, we are inundated with messages from cosmic management: a familiar song on the radio, a déjà vu scenario, a serendipitous meeting with a friend who reveals a great job for you, an Open sign in a store window, an annoying Detour that takes you a mile out of your way, and so on. But without a chorus of angels, a trumpeting brass section, or bolts
of lightning, these ordinary, everyday signs can go unnoticed (by you). And whatever persistent, prompting, prodding visual aid was given is lost.
I lived my life waiting for signs, even for the writing of this book. Waiting … for a sign … gave me permission … to wait for a sign … to step out of my velvet rut. Waiting for a sign was easy because it required absolutely nothing of me. I could hold out for an eternity if necessary. If that Higher Power wasn’t in any hurry to show me a sign … I wasn’t in any hurry to acknowledge one. I became a pro at waiting for guidance.
No matter how big, bold, or in-your-face signs are, we don’t recognize them until we’re ready to receive them. Was that Check Baggage sign at the airport (which triggered an hour’s worth of serial giggling) a sign? And how about the Claim Baggage Here sign I encountered at my destination, which caused me to tear up a little between sighs of “Do I have to?”
It’s a sign of unfolding awareness when we begin to notice signs, partly because we’ve set our intention (to learn and to grow), but also partly because we’re paying more attention. Our
awareness grows and tips the scales toward expanded consciousness. The bonus is that the more open we are, the more signs we experience.
A sign means whatever we think it does. Signs are like those Rorschach ink blot tests—they mean something unique to everyone who observes them. The only difference is that there isn’t a
therapist furiously making notes while you’re scrunching up your nose and examining the sign from several different angles.
However, the message a sign holds for us may change as we change. What encountering a Yield sign evoked in me as a sixteen year-old is different than what it triggers for me now. Which
interpretation is correct? It’s always the one that most completely supports and empowers us at that moment in time. The nudge to find a sign is actually coming from our inner spiritual essence
longing to be heard. It’s that essence that encourages us. It’s that inner voice that tells us which sign to pay attention to, which one we most need now.