This story is an excerpt from my faith journey article that I wrote back in 2006 for our church newsletter. Many people seem to like hearing it, although it’s probably only a good reason to believe for me rather than you. This isn’t the only reason I switched from being a skeptic to a believer, but it sure softened me up for other events that followed in my life. Call it a huge stepping stone in learning to doubt my doubts.
Sept. 12, 1997 was a big day. That was the day I went running in Mercer County Park to see if I really could do a marathon. I’d been training all summer long. I had extra time because I was unemployed. I was motivated to do it then, because my wife Nancy and I were in the process of applying to adopt a baby girl from China. It would be almost another year before we got her. I suspected I would have to give up my running, so it was now or never.
It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 70’s. I needed to do 4 laps to do a marathon. The run went very well, till I got to that 4th lap around mile 20-21. My sweat made sores I’d developed sting. I was getting very tired & thirsty. Through my own willpower I made it down to the last half lap, but then the pain was almost unbearable. I thought about giving up. I just did not see how I could make it the whole way.
Growing up, I was taught that it was wrong to ask God for things for ourselves. In a sense, I still believe that. Asking for winning lottery tickets is not the way to heaven. I was really hesitant to ask for help, but I started talking to God as a way to keep going. At that point in my life, I wasn’t even sure whether or not I believed there was a God. I didn’t ask for help directly, but I got to the point where I asked God to please let me finish what I’d set out to do. I just wanted to conquer the pain long enough to finish that last 3-4 miles.
I’d probably only gone another 5-10 steps, when an amazing thing happened. It was a crystal clear sunny day, but it rained. Not a big huge storm. Just one little cloud that drifted over me. It sprinkled enough water on me to rinse off some of the sweat and keep me going. I managed to finish, but I didn’t tell my wife Nancy or anyone else this part of the story for years for fear they’d say I was nuts and that it was just a coincidence. It might well have been, but the timing of it is so hard to deny. It didn’t rain a downpour all over NJ. It just rained on one small patch of the park I was running in just after I’d asked God for help.
Matt’s ‘Monument’
2020 UPDATE: In 2018, we moved from NJ to MI. I decided to leave behind a small cross on a tree in the area where it rained on me. It was just a freebie from a charity that I never felt good about throwing away. I’d been thinking about it for years & kept putting it off. On the last day I was in NJ, it was a cold, snowy day in Dec. Not a good day to walk in the park. I knew it was now or never, though, as it was unlikely I would ever get to that part of the park again. My resolve hardened & I decided to put up the cross.
I thought it was just going to be a quick in & out 5-10 min. thing before I got on the road for MI. What had been tiny saplings in ’97 were now tall trees. It was hard to know exactly which was closest to the spot where it had rained. I ended up just giving it my best shot. What I didn’t expect was how much emotion would well up in me after all those years. Probably took me a hour of driving to get control of my emotions. That small sign of his unexpected grace still strikes a chord in me. Who am I that God should care? As I write this I wipe away yet another tear. Maybe, just maybe someday I’ll have to make a trip back just to see if that little cross is still there.
Benedetta says
Matt ; This is a beautiful story.
I too have received signs in my life of a greater power. Gideon in Judges is a perfect example of signs from God in what to do. Dew or no dew on the sheep skin.
1 Corinthians 12-14 talks a lot about spiritual gifts. Who wrote Corinthians anyway?
Signs and then there is those visits from the Holy Spirit out of blue, unexpected.
I such a visit in late October of 2016.
Why? Perhaps God rejoices some times, and in that rejoicing he centers on the people involved emotionally.
I guess I need to look into all the reasons that cause God to rejoice to understand my own experience. I think I understand some of it.
But really; when you think about it, human language is very rich, and complicated, and yet when God opens up a soul to the universe through the Holy Spirit and we get just a glimpse of what is there, that human language is just not complicated enough.
Matt says
It’s is amazing that Paul, a reformed murderer of christians, wrote Corinthians especially the love chapter in 1 Cor. 13. An incredible transformation due to the power of God intervening in our lives when we really don’t expect him to. You would think with the untold number of people in this world over time, he surely would not take notice of you or I. An infinite, eternal God, though, has lots of time to deal with all of his people.
My favorite section of 1 Corinthians is 1 Cor 15:3-10. It sums up why Saul became Paul. The verses 1 Cor. 15:14,17 sang out to me the 1st time I read them. They point exactly why the resurrection is so important for our faith. In many respects evidence for the resurrection is the key point of the website. Some say there is no proof of it, but it is usually because they have not studied the evidence. The evidence for it is summarized on the home page thru the many questions I used to have before God intervened in my life & gave me answers for my doubts.