Truth is Often Stranger than Fiction

From time to time we hear Mark Twain's quote "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't." in relation to some amazing story. I have such a story today.

Last night laying in bed I was thinking about my life, about my constant search for some peace of heart concerning what I believe and what I don't believe and thinking about my place right now in life. I was thinking maybe I needed to go on one of those "vision quests" where I could go off by myself to rediscover my purpose. My life has changed so much in the past couple years and its hard to keep pace with the changes.

I thought of a book I read way back in 1984. At the time I read it primarily because it was by an author I dearly love to read, June Strong. I was not at the same place she was in writing this book but it still struck some deep cords with me. I have never forgotten the joy in reading it.

Thinking about this book, made me wish I had held on to it. Then within moments sleep over came me and I didn't even give it a thought today at all, until....... I had to run to town to do an errand. A dear friend passed away this week and I wanted to get a sympathy card for her mom.

I tell you no lie, I felt totally and completely compelled to go to Goodwill as I was nearing the store. I was just there yesterday so it felt a bit odd to me, but I long ago learned to NOT ignore such strong feelings and this was almost like a magnetic draw that gave me very little control.

I walked around, everything looked pretty much like it did yesterday, but there on a shelf of baskets, laying half off the shelf as if the shelf was offering it to me, a copy of the very book I was thinking about last night. This is no best seller, it was never sold in anything but small Christian book stores. It was the very same edition I had read so long ago. On the front cover, a name of the owner, Pat. It was owned by someone named Pat ! I felt weak in the knees at the sheer miracle of this. I looked around, grabbed the book like someone taking a precious stone hidden in a stack of ordinary rocks.

And there on the back of the book these words...

"Why would a middle-aged mother of six leave her home and walk up Maine's U.S. highway all alone ? " I was not running away, " she writes. "I was searching for something lost. but found instead something that had been with me right along." Who am I ? she questioned. Who is June Strong anyway ? Mother, author, wife, speaker, homemaker, daughter of God... will the read June Strong please stand up ?

"I went on this trip," she writes "determined to unpeel the accumulated layers of conventional religion and see if there was anything underneath." " I wanted a new heart." And so she walked and thought, paused to read and ponder. Who am I ? Why am I? Does my value lie in my role as Christian, as a mother, a wife, a writer ? Why aren't I more content ? Why do I get so frustrated, so depressed ? And so she, this well known, much sought after Christian writer, left her family on a hike along the coast of Maine. ...

-Penny Estes Wheeler-

I know without a doubt I was meant to have this book, its a gift. It feels like it was dropped out of heaven just for me, maybe even no one else saw it there. I think this weekend I will take a hike along with June Strong on this journey to discover something important about my own life. I suspect that in time I will come away with a clear vision of what my purpose is at this time in my life.