Fortune Cookies From God

“ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ ”  Jeremiah 29:11

I think that one of the best things about living in California is the chance to enjoy so many varieties of ethnic food.  I especially enjoy the variety of foods we have from Asia.  I truly am a sucker for a good Vietnamese spring roll.  I like all kinds of Thai food, so long as it has a peanut sauce or a red curry drenching it.  On a night when I need something light, a nice Japanese Maki roll can sure hit the spot.  My favorite neighborhood place is a Chinese restaurant around the block.  The combination of always-fresh vegetables from local fields and recent emigrants eager to share tastes from their home country is very satisfying indeed.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the meal is the very end when the fortune cookies arrive.  I don’t know exactly who invented the fortune cookie, but I think it must have been a person who was a better entertainer than chef.  There is nothing quite so fun as finishing dinner with a group of close friends and then going around the circle.  Each person cracks open their fortune cookie and reads the little paper out loud to the group.  Usually the fortune is so general that every one just laughs at it.  “Good luck will arrive unexpectedly.”  “You will soon meet a new friend.”  The fortune is so broad that it is guaranteed to come true.

There are times that speaking with God feels to me like cracking open a fortune cookie.  I remember one time when I had been praying about something particularly important to me, something that I had prayed about many times.  A few hours later I had a fleeting sense that God was going to grant my request at some time in the future.  Years later I was still praying about the same unfulfilled request.  I reminded God of what I thought He had told me so long before.  I asked how much longer I would have to wait for it.  I had a sense that the answer was “soon.”  It is probably the only time I have laughed during prayer because I remembered that Jesus told His disciples that He would return “soon.”

I used to get frustrated with God because I felt like I was praying and He wasn’t listening.  As I have grown in my relationship with God and in my ability to pray, I understand now that I only felt He wasn’t listening because I didn’t hear Him speaking back to me.  Today there are times when I sense His voice… at least I think I am hearing His voice.  Then I start to get doubts.  I begin to wonder if I am turning my own desires into words from God, kind of like reading a fortune cookie and forcing it to fit current events in my life.  I suppose that wondering if I am hearing God is progress since I used to think He wasn’t even listening.  Now I know that God is listening.  Instead of hearing His voice, more often than not I have the sense that He is trying to speak to me but I just don’t get it.  From time to time my heart gets into just the right alignment with God and a few words from Him break through into my consciousness.  Perhaps in a few more years my ears will be better tuned to hear His words to me.

[PhotoCredit:Greencolander & bingbing & zzzack ]