Convincements and Small Providentials

SMALL PROVIDENTIALS by Wayne Dixon Some would call co-ordinate events coincidences, but I call them “providentials.” They happen unexpectedly, but often as outcomes of choices made. When we are surprised by positive outcomes, we wonder what would have happened if we had pursued a different path. My mind works in mysterious ways, as though I am making rebound decisions based on persistent inward impressions. By past experience I’ve learned not to mentally teeter-totter too long but to go with the initial intuition. That saves time, mental struggle, and releases doubts. Sometimes if I consciously veto the inward suggestion and shrug it off, then I wonder what I might miss. In the course of a day there are many minor choices. Let me give you an example. I was in the gym the other day in the spa and I told a person I that I was going to the pedaling exercise machine when I had actually intended to do arm exercise. When I realized my contradiction I went ahead to the bike room as I said I would. When I got there two bikes were open, one to the right and to the left, and as I was headed to one I redirected to the other. After I’d done a mile on the cycle, the person on my side said, “I know you from somewhere.” A significant conversation followed. What if? Perhaps this is a universal experience. Blaise Pascal, the seventeen century French mathematician wrote, “The heart has its reasons that reason never knows.” My father used to say he had a “convincement” about a matter. When I looked the term up in the unabridged dictionary it was listed as an archaic Quaker term related to one’s inner light. My Quaker great-grandfather called it “His Voice to Me” as a manuscript title of his experiences. So I follow along, my life’s daily directives. Many times these directives are in mental Biblical telegrams like, “Follow the pattern shown thee in the mount,” originally addressed to Moses. Or in the words of the Proverbist, “Be not as the mule,” perhaps referring to the prophet talked to by a mule? I pay attention to these reminders because they fit in with my world view, “God’s in His heaven, all’s right with the world.” I just try to keep it that way.