Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Do you wanna ride?

I’m studying a new pattern.

An artist I deeply admire recently stated something to this effect about a warrior mentality – that warriors don’t rely on chance, rather, they carefully observe and study patterns and intentionally repeat and re-create circumstances in order to achieve success or victory.

The pattern I am privy to so far in 2012 is God’s orchestration of events in order to produce a result I have been slack in bringing to pass.

Example No 1. - In June of last year, I began keeping a very specific and detailed prayer list. Those who know me well know I swear by the discipline of writing things down. I’m a writer, so writing just makes sense to me. And I rely heavily on Habakkuk 2:2 to support the discipline spiritually. Writing is a way of manifesting, and on a simpler level, it clears the head.

Anyways, back to my specific and detailed prayer list. I had a section for others needs and a personal section, for my own needs. From the start, I wrote nearly each time I updated it (most often weekly) in my personal section – “Move to LA.” Now for those not familiar with Los Angeles, it’s a huge sprawling city, within a county, also called Los Angeles. I’d been living under the radar near the mountains above Pasadena – a more suburban section of the county about a 20 minutes drive from downtown Los Angeles (Staples Center) and from there, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Venice, etc. I’d lived in Hollywood before, but I had some concerns about moving back. Yet always I knew, being in LA had purpose. Where I live is in many ways, like a calling for me. So every week, for months, I wrote this down on the list “Move to LA.” The prayer became so specific that I even began to believe God was actually urging me not just to move anywhere in LA, but to Beverly Hills of all places.

I deliberated, for months, considering the financial reality of the move – dismal to say the least. Nevertheless, I apartment hunted a bit. Then sometime around October or November, after following a lead on an ad listing, a visit to the place, and a follow-up lunch, I found myself being courted by a very nice young lady who was looking for a roommate. In LA. She had others interested, but one day she called and said she chose me! I turned it down flatly. The holidays came and went, and I was still up in the hills of Pasadena, hiding, doubting that I had what I needed – financially and emotionally, to make the move. In short, I was stuck.

Here comes the pattern. I returned to LA after the holidays without enough money to pay my rent. My landlord, a poor spirited, unreasonable man, managing just two units in a guest house on the back of his property, refused to offer me any grace with the rent. Now, I’d paid my rent to him consistently for a year and a half but he wanted me out. Immediately at first, then after a heart to heart opted instead to offer me 30 days notice to move and an end our month-to-month lease agreement. A fine solution for him, but left me, already severely challenged financially, with little to no security deposit I would have needed to make a move with. His lack of consideration was shocking. It just didn’t make any sense considering our history?

Until, it hit me. God was moving me out! It was apparent for months prior to these events that the Spirit was nudging me to move to LA. My prayer lists were a paper trail of evidence to that effect. As my eyes were opened to the spiritual action at play, I made the decision to move, immediately. I didn’t wait the 30 days. I just cleaned out in one weekend, with the help of some angel friends and left it behind. A lot happened in the two months that followed, delay, delay, delay, etc., etc., etc. - but to summarize the story, two weeks ago, I moved to Bel Air. Beverly Hills adjacent.

Example No. 2 - I was just about to relax in the promised land after the harrowing journey out of Egypt when I crashed my car on Sunset Blvd one rainy Sunday morning on my way to church. Are you kidding me?! Amazingly, no one was injured and I was able to drive my car home and to a mechanic the next day. He sent me to his body repair guy who told me it would cost around $1200 to repair the damage. That, plus a separate mechanical issue estimated at around $300-400 left me at a loss for words.

The clincher? My insurance policy won’t cover damages to my vehicle.

The dilemna? Repair my car or get a new one.

Somewhere in the wilderness between Pasadena and Bel Air, I lost the discipline of keeping my prayer list. But at the top of the year, for the first New Moon, I kept my discipline of writing out my resolutions and intentions for the year. Under my “Wishes for things I want to manifest” clear as day is written – “A new car.” And when I looked back through my prayer lists while writing this post, everywhere I wrote “Move to LA” not far behind is - “New car.”

My friends, I haven’t the money to consider buying a car. Nor a proper credit score to finance one. The audacity of me…to even consider such an action, when I have bills I can’t pay and debt to budget.

But when God does something twice in a row, forcing me to move out of my comfort zone and in the direction of my true heart’s desire, I’d be a faithless fool to ignore it.

Mercedes, here I come ;)