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Signs When You Need Them
by Alan Cohen
While driving home one day, I noticed that
someone had posted some cardboard signs along the roadside, leading guests to a
party on my street. I live out in the country where there are no city blocks,
with many curving roads and irregular intersections.
I saw that the person who had posted the
signs, placed them at the crucial intersections. At every important choice
point, there was a sign. I drove for long stretches past numerous smaller
intersections, where there were no posters. Then, when I again reached a crucial
intersection, there was another clear marker.
It occurred to me that this is how Spirit
gives us guidance -- we get signs when we need them. Whenever you arrive at a
critical choice point, information shows up to help you decide. If you are not
getting a sign, you are probably not at a crucial intersection. That’s the time
to just keep going and enjoy the ride. When you are ready to know, you will. If
you don’t know, it is not time yet. In the meantime, just breathe, trust, and
find the blessing where you are.
If you are seeking direction, pray for
guidance. Then let the universe deliver your answer in the right way, place, and
time. If, upon completing your prayer, you do not hear a voice boom from heaven,
shout your name, and bellow, "This is what you must do!" don’t freak out.
Give the Great Spirit a chance to deliver your message when you most need it. It
will come.
Guidance often arrives in uncanny and
synchronistic ways. I met a fellow who prayed for a sign to help him decide
whether or not to accept a promotion that would require him to relocate his home
and family to a distant city. Then one night he came home late and saw a "For
Sale" sign on his lawn. Since his wife was already sleeping, he did not want to
wake her. The next morning he asked her about the sign. "What sign?" she asked
him. "The one on the lawn," he told her. The two walked outside, and no sign was
to be found. The fellow deduced that he had indeed been given a sign. He took
the job, and the move ultimately turned out to be a success for everyone.
A man at a seminar told me he prayed for
direction one morning, and then that afternoon as he walked out of a restaurant,
the wind blew a piece of paper against his knees. He picked it up and discovered
it was a flyer for my seminar that evening. He attended, and subsequently his
life changed.
Another friend decided he wanted to become
independently wealthy and retire at a young age. He prayed for help with this
project. The next morning when he went out to jog, as he turned a corner he saw
a book someone had left on top of a trashcan:
Your Money or Your Life. He took the book, read
it, and found the wisdom he needed. Now he is well on his way to riches and
early retirement.
If you act anxiously to hasten your answer,
you inhibit your ability to receive guidance, and delay its arrival. In such a
situation your wisest move is to step back from frenetic activity and return to
peace. I once needed to find a particular document to resolve a financial snafu.
I searched for it nervously, and only grew more confused and frustrated. Finally
I realized I was getting nowhere and decided to sit down and meditate to clear
my mind. I let go of trying to locate the paper, and relaxed. Toward the end of
my meditation, an image popped into my mind, showing me a certain folder toward
the rear of a file cabinet. I looked in the folder and there was the document.
I use a very successful method to receive
guidance. I call it "The Truth Smoke-Out." Whenever I am not sure what to
do, I say to the universe, "Just show me what I am to do here. I am willing to
do whatever is in the best interest of everyone involved. Give me a clue, and I
will follow." Then I release the situation. I give up any preconceived notion
about how this is supposed to turn out, and when I am supposed to know.
Sometimes the answer comes instantly, and sometimes it takes a while. But it
always comes.
In the Greek version of the Bible, the first
translation from the original Aramaic, two different words are used for our word
"time." One is chronos, which is equivalent to our understanding of time
in seconds, minutes, and hours. The other word is kairos, which
can best be translated as "in God’s time" or "at the right time" or "when the
time is ripe." In our culture we are used to living in chronos. But there
is an entirely more important element of time, which is timing. That’s
kairos. Practice living in kairos, and answers arrive at the perfect
time. God is at least as smart as the person who put the signs up for the party.
Previous columns
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