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Fortune Cookie Faith
Believe it or not, God definitely has a sense of humor. He knows how bad I am about second guessing myself. I believe he will use whatever he wants to get through my thick skull.
Even a fortune cookie.
In early 1999, my family moved to Europe. The weeks and months before were fraught with doubts. Did God really want us to make such a tremendous change? Had I misunderstood? A couple weeks before as we sat finishing a meal at a Chinese restaurant, I opened my fortune cookie and read "you will soon undertake a great trip." Or something like that. I laughed. Too cute.
Three and half years later, we sat in another Chinese restaurant in Zürich, anticipating our upcoming move back to the States. I opened my cookie and about choked. "You will soon cross great waters to go to a land of sunshine." California, here we come!
Again I laughed but wondered if perhaps God was using such a silly thing to reassure me I was right on track. I mean, why not? He definitely caught my attention.
Now I will be the first to admit fortune cookies are just fun, silly little things that most of the time make no sense whatsoever. But how often do we live our faith, depending on those little messages from God to bring us from one place to another?
Granted, I love these messages from God. They remind me of how much he really loves me, and that he's always there. There's nothing wrong with that. The danger here is when we become like monkeys swinging from vine to vine, dependent upon the next to get us where we need to be or go in God's will.
Look at these love messages as the extra benefits to keeping a daily discipline of feasting on God's Word, praying and spending time with him. Knowing God is the best way to be sure you're going the right direction.
Then these little messages, or fortunes if you will, remain what they were intended to be. Dessert.
Praying and believing,
Dineen
Amen, God always leads us in the right direction.
Posted by: Denise | February 17, 2009 at 01:50 AM
Dineen, I loved your fortune cookie messages. God chooses to speak to us in so many ways. While I don't rely on them, I do see humor in them. I have gotten some very inspirational ones but a recent one said, "You may laugh now, wait until you get home." I have to tell you, I wasn't in a great hurry to get home. It was kind of weird, LOL!
Posted by: Laurie Ann | February 17, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Okay you are giving me the heebie jeebies! I was just cleaning my kitchen cupboard and I found a box of fortune cookies that I meant to serve with a chinese dinner a while back. I thought to myself, "I wonder if they are still any good. I opened up one and said, "I sure hope this message will confirm God's will to me." Then I reminded myself that is not biblical, but there still remained that faint hope.
So your message tickled me indeed!
Posted by: Julianne | February 17, 2009 at 03:34 PM
Denise, been thinking about you a lot lately, and praying. Must be a God thing. :-)
Laurie Ann, I would have been a little "weirded out" by that one!
Julianne, you are so funny! What a coincidence. Or should I say God-incidence?
Posted by: Dineen Miller | February 17, 2009 at 04:21 PM
Great post. You're a great writer.
Posted by: Helen | February 17, 2009 at 05:16 PM
Dineen,
This was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. This brought a smile to my face and was thought provoking at the same time!
Ang
Posted by: Angela (Ang4him) | February 17, 2009 at 10:24 PM
Thank you, Helen! :-)
Thanks, Ang. I'm glad it made you smile. Hugs!
Posted by: Dineen Miller | February 19, 2009 at 06:13 PM