The Return of Synchronicity

I recently attended a writer’s conference and my mind and heart are on "overload." It's been seven years since I last attended this conference, and seven years since I have done any serous writing.

When I filled out the online sign-up form, I also checked the box to write and submit a piece for the writing contest. Several weeks went by without writing anything and I had decided to just skip it altogether. The day before the deadline, I received a conference update email reminding me of the contest entry deadline. So I opened MS Word and started laying words down on the page and before I knew it, I was done. And while I thought it was pretty good, I dismissed all thoughts of winning. It just felt good to be writing again.

In the contest entry, I wrote about the writing drought and how it began when I said "no" to something God asked of me during the 2012 conference. I also wrote how much I had felt God's hand on my writing prior to the conference; I said "there was so much synchronicity." I wrote about what God had asked me to do, how I had said "no" and how everything crashed after that. I also wrote about the event that freed me in 2018, and how I was finally able to say "yes" to God.

The conference was amazing, and I didn't give much thought to the contest during the hectic schedule of workshops and continuing sessions. I was exhausted as I sat down for the closing events, but I suddenly felt anxious. And then my name was announced as a winner. I was overcome with emotion. I knew that this honor represented the return of synchronicity. I knew that the drought was over.

My Pastor's sermon the following morning blew me away. God spoke directly to me through him with phrases like, "God never stops seeking after us," and "You'll never be disappointed by doing things His Way." And then there was this: 

 "So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." 

                                                                                                (Romans 12:1-2 The Message)

The sermon continued with descriptions of Biblical characters who struggled with God: Moses, Jacob, Jonah (who said "no" to God.) The title of my winning entry at the Writers Conference was, "Call me Jonah." I'd say that synchronicity has indeed returned.

What do you think?