Faith and the rest of the grains...

well the story continues...well after that amazing incident (please refer previous blog) I thought God's protection on me was for forever no matter how dangerous the situation...so a few weeks later after I had shifted residence to South Jersey - a suburb of Philadelphia - I had to take the local train to get home. I was late reurning from the lab, it was dark and the sidewalks (pavements) deserted though the traffic on the roads was brisk as ever .My home was between two stations- the first one a dangerous route but closer to home ,the other one safer but a longer distance. I decided to take the first - thinking I must exercise my faith , God was with me...etc all those childhood and young adult concepts of faith flew by--if you had faith like a mustard seeds you can move mountains, without faith it is impossible to please God, anything is possible if you believe--well believe it or not , next moment something told me to look back ..and boom in a fraction of a second a ten ton hand from nowhere came smashing through my face, pushing me to the ground , my glasses all smashed up -- and a voice demanding .."where's the money, where's the money?" I replied, " in the bag, in the bag " pointing to the the larger bag that had fallen on the sidewalk . If Perry Mason was around he would have said ' this is were he made his first fatal mistake' - He overestimated himself and thought this was a feeble, fainthearted, fragile lady and took the bag and in full view of the street lights darted into a sidestreet a few feet away. I was on my feet, my face badly bruised - he had my face pinned to the sidewalk as before my feeble utterances helping him to locate the money, he didnt want me to have a look at him . I walked home - thinking where was God in all this - and reported it to the local police. My bag with papers and all (even my credit card) was located in a nearby dumpster.. he had apparently availed himself of the few dollars and discarded the rest. The next day a police arrived at my apartment with a set of photographs for identification..my pakistani roomate promptly made herself scarce, not wanting to get involved while I identified the man. The police was visibly relieved.. it seems the next day the same man had dragged a woman close to a dark dumpster and made off with all her jewels etc..The man was apprehended, jailed and the police very thankful to me....my faith was shaken but my principles and concepts straightened out -- God wanted me exert my faith only when He said so....but in other circumstances to be street savvy and wise and use my intellect to live intelligently in the world around me. I should have taken the safer route even if longer..In the first instance (previous blog) He wanted to show me that God truimphed over evil .. when I obeyed He protected me ( with a touch of humor as well-- the five dollar came by in the breeze) --Also that evening (previous blog) several black people walked on the street but I walked unafraid. Perhaps these black men were God's children and God wanted to show that we were not afraid of the black men-- they are a lot of good black men .If He calls us into difficult situations He will be with us through that ..but we ourselves must not put oneself in difficult circumstances. ...So is the end of that story. Love JJ