Beloved Chaos miracles

 A woman waited nearby as I handed out some purses a nearby church filled with women’s gifts and hygiene products. When I turned to offer her one, she said, “This is my first time to come here. Thank you for the breakfast and for such a nice place. I don’t really need a purse or all the stuff in it, but do you know where I can get a phone?”

She has court hearings coming up and she is required to attend them on a phone. She was honest about the fact that she kept forgetting to get a phone and now the hearings are coming near and she realized she needs one, like now. She rode the bus all day yesterday looking for a tent where they give out government phones, but couldn’t find one. 

I told her an Easy Wireless person comes every Friday and sets up a tent in our yard. That will be too late—her first hearing is Thursday. Another guy comes around in a pickup truck randomly, but I can’t really predict when he will be here. Ugh. I didn’t know what to tell her. I encouraged her to ask some of the other folks sitting around the room. Maybe they can tell her where they got their phones. 

I apologized that I couldn’t be more helpful, and she thanked me anyway. As she turned and moved away, a man who has been to Joe’s Addiction a few times as a customer was waiting. Our barista had already made his drink but he had something he wanted to ask me. 

He held out a phone box and said, “I want to give this phone to someone who needs it. It’s wiped clean and ready to use, and I will pay the monthly phone bill. I thought you might know who really needs one.” 

“Are you kidding?” 

“No.”

“Did you hear what that woman was just asking me?”

“No.”

“Come with me!”

We hurried to the woman, who was gathering her things from her table to head out to the bus stop. I said, “You will never believe this. This man was waiting to speak to me immediately after you. I told him about her need and told her about his gift. Tears filled her eyes and a grin spread across his face. “I know!” I said, “It’s amazing!”

I tell you the truth when I say this kind of thing happens at Joe’s Addiction ALL THE TIME.

Some will give God the credit and offer praise, and maybe that is a fine way to look at it. “Every good gift comes from the Father above.” It’s helpful to be grateful for good gifts.

But I have theological trouble giving God the credit for every good thing, yet not holding God responsible for every bad thing. Because the honest truth is also that so many needs (ones that feel so much bigger and more important than a phone) DO NOT GET MET—EVER. If it’s that easy for God to meet needs, then why isn’t every need met? How does God decide who gets their need met and who doesn’t? Why then is there so much suffering?

When this “miracle” happened, my friend who volunteers at Joe’s asked rather loudly, “What is that?! I mean, how do you explain that?!” I told her I don’t really know. These days I highly value science—mirror neurons that help us experience empathy, the ripple effect that can be seen in our brain activity when we observe someone doing an act of kindness, the possibility of an energetic, collective consciousness that connects us all to one another. But I honestly don’t know.

She said something like, “I think what is happening is that you created a place where this kind of thing *can happen.* The needs are here and the opportunity to meet the needs is also here. That’s why we see it happening here.”

I like that. There’s truth in that. We have created this physical, miracle-happening space at Joe’s Addiction, but the miracle-happening space can be any physical location as long as it happens first in our hearts. In our souls. Maybe even in our brains. A space where we intentionally allow ourselves to *see* and *feel* the need. Maybe then we can notice the nudging inspiration to meet that need. Maybe *that* is the “God” part—the Divine spark in each of us inviting us to Love One Another.

#joesaddiction #belovedchaos