DID JESUS PASS THE BATON? AND GIVE ME A BOOST?

About ten minutes ago, I found something on the Internet that sent a chill down my spine.

Easter revolves around a time period. Our LORD dies on Friday, and three days later rises from the tomb. Death, rebirth - in three days.

As a prolific writer on the Internet, I'm always checking to see how my works are climbing up the ladder of lines on Google search pages. "Getting to the top" on Page One is everyone's goal. Hitting page one is cause for celebration.

Unless you hit the jackpot on a particular keyword, your ascent in the search engine world is usually gauged by the volume of information you have produced, which can only be accumulated with time. There aren't a lot of ways to cheat the formula (that I know of).

After resuming my daily feature Proverb A Day, I used the title in a Google search to check my altitude. To my surprise, I was #2 on Page 2, an amazing feat, considering the fact that I started the site on March 15, 2009, and began the Proverbs series the following day. Quite literally, I have defied the laws of gravity and I have no idea why.

When I was doing my Google search, I had to check out who was at the top. The second listing on the golden First Page had the exact same title, Proverb A Day, as my posts. A click brought me to a familiar Blogger template and lots of Proverbs. At the top of the home page on this site, the author had penned a farewell, stating he had completed his work after 613 submissions. the very last post said he had moved to another site. Ironically, the date format, placing the year first, is the exact same format that I use to catalog my computer files. The eerie part is that this post was made on March 12, 2009, marking the end of a journey; almost like a death - three days before I launched my site to continue the relay race for souls on the Internet. At right are the screen shots of the posting dates of the site that passed and the one that was born. Did Jesus pass the baton to me? Or was this just a strange coincidence.

Throughout my life I've had a LOT of strange coincidences, where the odds of what happened seemed to defy gravity and the best odds makers in Vegas.

One extremely chilling experience involved rushing a friend to the hospital. Her hand was inflamed to the size of a football from a staph infection. The only way I could get her to stop screaming was to get her to pray. Granted the volume of the prayer was nearly ear-shattering, but it was a relief from her agonizing screeches. Our prayer was very brief, "Please take care of Pat, for we are your faithful servants." "We are your faithful servants." After a mile or two of recitation, a car whips around us on Cheyenne Ave. and the Nevada license plate reads, F8THFL.

I have story after story of all these precise timing moments of events throughout my life. Some people that are seeking God First (GF) expect the LORD to come into their life to the rousing beat of an introduction theme as if played by the Tonight Show band. From what I know, that won't happen. But there are lots of little whispers, moments that make you think and wonder, that may be a voice speaking to you. If you pay close attention, feed your mind with The Word, and listen, you just might hear the rapid pace of feet rushing toward you and be able to see a hand extending a baton to you to grasp and continue a journey where someone else left off.

Look around. Jesus always put the focus on others. The more you look beyond your mirror, the more you will see. Allowing your mind to let the LORD speak to you, might just put you on a path you never dreamed possible.

For more information about The Path, see canyonridge.org

If you would like to find a place on the Internet to pause, reflect and pray, visit our companion site, The Circle: Prayers for Today.

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