My eyes opened as my waking consciousness stirred from slumber. I looked toward the ceiling at the red projection of the time from the bedside clock. My Mother had given it to Bill and me as a Christmas gift at some point in the last ten or so years.
”4:44”- an auspicious moment. The peace in my spirit was confirmed. “This is the way forward. Walk in it.”
The last three and a half weeks had been a blur. Circumstances were set in place after a definitive moment . Then a blur of rapid fire decisions were presented to me. Each one of them setting in place the next one. I hardly had to think. It was as if I was on auto mode. Each decision took me further in a direction the would not have been a possibility before. God had nudged me forward one tentative step at the time and now He was saying “GO!”
I pondered the marvel of it all briefly, then turned over, smiled to myself and rolled over to go back to sleep. The time on the ceiling was 5:42. What seemed like mere moments of reflecting had been almost an hour.
Moments like that give me a tiny glimpse of the timelessness of God and what a lifetime feels like in the context of eternity.
12/31/2025- The post above was written 3 weeks after a split second moment when I made a decision to move back to Alabama. It was not impulsive, however. It was something I had considered for a while. But in that early August split second the weight of considerations tilted the scale and the decision was made. What had seemed like obstacles were suddenly irrelevant. All that mattered was that it seemed to be the moment I heard God say “Go.” I called my sister, “Find me a house. I’m coming home.” In three weeks things were set in place, lists made and the transition began.
Charlotte Ann and I have been talking about transitions and flourishing in the midst of them. As I reflect on the way things came together immediately following that split second decision, I am again assured that it was all God’s plan, just waiting for me to say “Yes!” This week, between Christmas and New Year a year ago is when the work from August to December made my return to Alabama complete and I was officially living in the new space- spiritually, psychologically, and physically.