A personal appearance by God

The Huntsville Times recently ran an interesting Q&A feature on the role that God has had in a person's life. The person that they profiled, James Waller, described personally experiencing God:

God personally appeared before me. In the fall of 1993, I remember being awakened at 3 a.m. When I looked up, I saw the Lord standing at the entrance to the apartment.

There was a dark silhouette with brilliant light all about his presence, and angels were dancing and playing, as if they were little children. When God spoke to me, my whole body shook at the sound of His voice.

Waller goes on to describe how the Lord called him to read the Book of Job. After that, Waller lost everything in service to the Lord.

Do we find happiness at church?

Jonathan Clements of The Wall Street Journal wrote this week about an interesting study on happiness and leisure time. The study of 4,000 Americans, by academics Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger, David Schkade, Norbert Schwarz and Arthur Stone, found that how we spend our time is a key factor in our happiness.

What Clements found the most intriguing was "the study's data on which activities we enjoy. The five professors grouped activities into six clusters, based on the emotions associated with each.

The standout cluster was what the authors label 'engaging leisure and spiritual activities,' things like visiting friends, exercising, attending church, listening to music, fishing, reading a book, sitting in a cafe or going to a party. When we spend time on our favorite of these activities, we're typically happy, engrossed and not especially stressed."

Come to think of it, I should head off to church now.

Donna the nurse

This week I was riding the light rail. Next to me sat a woman named Donna, who asked me many questions, including where I work (a financial services firm). I wasn't used to someone asking me so many questions. I later asked her questions and learned that she is a nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.

As Donna prepared to get off at her stop, she said that she believes every interaction with someone is the result of divine intervention. For Donna, sitting next to me and talking about her retirement savings and plans was helpful. I'm glad that I could be part of God's plan.