LOA & SPIRITUALITY

When You Ask, It is Given

How you receive may not look like what you thought.

Until 2002, I was a preacher, for the lack of a better word.

I never preached. I shared a message I believed. I shared my thoughts on living a spiritual and satisfying life based on what I learned and how I lived. Just as I am doing now, except I did it as a speaker in front of a religious congregation.

It was a volunteer position. I got to travel, and the community paid for it whenever I had to fly; otherwise, I paid my own way. It was rewarding work, and I grew tremendously, both as a person and as a speaker/communicator.

Since I was doing “God’s work,” I relied on Him to do all the heavy lifting. I showed up, said a little prayer before getting up to speak, and let it flow. You can say I was more of an inspirational speaker that a preacher. I shared the ideas I had read in books or heard in motivational programs.

In most of my speeches, I didn’t rely on scriptures or religious texts. I took material from wherever I could find it. I was able to do that because one of the guiding principles of my faith is that God is Universal and can speak to us humans in many ways through many channels.

One of the things I felt that my speeches lacked was humor. When I was growing up, the general outlook was that religion is a serious matter, and comedy was to make fun of things, and the two didn’t mix. But over the years, I noticed that our religious leader — the Imam — used humor effectively in his guidance. I longed to be like him.

So, as I prepared for one of my assignments, which would take me to San Antonio from Houston, I made an intention/prayer that I want to add humor to my speech — this was long before the popularity of The Secret and LOA. Still, it was in line with the spiritual principle of “Ask, and it is Given.”

My trip coincided with the celebration of the night of the revelation of the Qur’an. I had “prepared” to speak about the ethics of spiritual living. Immediately before I got up, someone read an essay that essentially summarized what I was planning to say.

When I got up, I said, “Had I known that someone was going to summarize my speech before I delivered it, I would have stayed in Houston and saved us all some time.” Everyone laughed. My intention/prayer was to add humor to my speech. It happened, not as I thought it might, but it did.

Ask, and it is given, is a Universal Spiritual Principle.

When I walked from Chicago to Santa Monica in 2016, at one point, I prayed and asked God to use me as He saw fit. I may have occasionally — okay, more than occasionally — forgotten that I had said that prayer, but God hasn’t. A couple of months ago, I started recounting my journey as it happened four years ago, and as a part of the story, I have been reflecting on the lessons I’ve learned and how they impact my life today.

A couple of days ago, I mentioned meeting my friend Gabriel on that day four years ago, and the food for thought he offered me. Then, on reflecting on it, I wrote about the first time I heard Gabriel speak at my Toastmasters club, and the story he shared in his speech. I was inspired to share his website. (God using me as He saw fit)

As part of the format of these reflections, I share a YouTube video, usually a song. But that day, I shared a video of Gabriel talking about how he found the answer to his prayer to be of service to God and humanity. I have always said, coincidence is not an accident or happenstance; it is multiple incidents taking place simultaneously — co-incidents.

What has been your experience? Have you experienced synchronicity that can only be receiving what you had asked for, but not how you thought it would show up? Let me know in the comments, or better yet, write the whole story, and tag me in it so that I can read it.

As always, thank you for reading and responding.

Here are a couple of related stories:

Rasheed Hooda is a published author, who has contributed to many of Medium’s top Publications; Start-up, The Ascent, P.S. I Love You, Rogues’ Gallery, and ILLUMINATION, to name a few. He is also a Top Writer on several topics. If you like his work you can buy him a cup of coffee.

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