dailydatewithgod

Years ago as a teacher of religion in a Catholic school, once a week my students opening class journal entry prompt would ask them about a Godincidence that occurred in the last week.  It was my term for coincidence in which God remained anonymous.  The idea was to get them thinking about how God might show up in their lives that perhaps was outside of what they originally preconceived as God. As seventh graders, they would often default to a time they interacted with a religious figure.  With a little discussion, I would invite them over and over to see God in the random coincidences: an unexpected encounter with a friend, finding something they thought they lost, a warm hug from a loved one, seeing the flowers after the rain, finding money in their backpack, something that made them smile, and so on. They were the best journal entries to read and I think fondly of the discussions about all their Godincidences.  Seventh graders have creative ideas about how God shows up.  My hope was that one day maybe when things were stressful or they could not find the presence of anything good in their lives they might notice a shot of love from God by recognizing a Godincidence.  I suppose I was shifting their attention to see from the lens of their hearts.  I was inviting them to find things to be grateful for.  Later in recovery, I heard people talk about the same concept but they called them God-shots.  Hearing it was a Godincidence for me. All these names are made up of the same experience.  It is a moment when shots of love open our eyes to allow something outside of us to remind us of the space of love within us that knows nothing else. In this uncertain and troubling time, God invites us to seek out as many God shots as we can lest we forget who we truly are.