The Godwink Experience

Recently I was talking with a friend who is an agnostic about how I know for sure there is a God. Though he is still young, he is widely read and quite articulate about his agnostic faith. Though I could have given him a long list of Bible verses for why I believe in God that would have been pointless since he does not accept the Bible as truth. Therefore I shared with him some experiences that I have had in my life that proved to me that God is real.

I had my first supernatural experience when I was in the 8^th grade. The church that I attended at the time did not believe that God did those things any more so I was left to sort out the experience on my own. As the years have gone by, I have had numerous experiences that can only be described as supernatural. One example is what I call the Green Bean Miracle. When I was a young father my daughter pulled a pot of boiling green beans off the stove. She should have been horribly burned. The green beans were in a circle around her body, with hot boiling water running all over the floor around her. But not a drop of boiling water or a speck of hot green bean was on her. It was a miracle. It is scientifically impossible for such a thing to happen, and yet it did. The Green Bean miracle is not based on faith because the miracle is a FACT. It actually happened. It was a real experience. I could make a list of similar experiences that have happened to me during my life just like the Green Bean miracle that proves to me that God is real. But to be honest, I don't need multiple experiences, because just ONE would have been enough. Each time I have another such experience; it just reinforces the FACT of God's existence in my mind.

Such experiences are actually quite common in our society. I asked a group of teenagers who attend the youth group at our church if they had any such experiences. Most of the teenagers in the group did not grow up in Christian homes and very few of them would be able to articulate their faith using theological terms. Yet, one by one they went around the room and shared stories of brain tumors shrinking, marriages being put back together, victory over various addictions, as well as a variety of physical healings. Though some of those teenagers have not yet made a commitment to become a Christian, the vast majority did believe there was a God because of the FACTS of their experiences.

I was pleasantly surprised to recently hear that a man named Squire Rushnell has written a book called "When God Winks." This book is filled with stories of these kinds of experiences which Rushnell has gathered from all over America. He calls these experiences "Godwinks." I like that term. Rushnell believes that when we have an experience that can only be described as supernatural, it is actually God winking at us to remind us that He is there and that He is involved in our lives. Rushnell is not some half crazy television preacher trying to make a quick buck off of naïve old ladies. He is a veteran ABC network television executive. Under his leadership the program "Good Morning America" rose to number one in its time slot and its ratings increased by 140%. He was also the person who developed the acclaimed Schoolhouse Rock series and the ABC After School Specials, which earned 75 Emmy Awards during his career. He left that lucrative and powerful career to travel the nation sharing how we can know for sure that God is real. You can order his book and read more about his life at his website: http://whengodwinks.com/

Perhaps it is time for all the skeptics among us to stop using the "I can't just take it on faith" argument and instead start looking at the FACTS of both God's existence and His involvement in our lives. If God has winked at YOU lately, leave a brief description of your experience in the comment section below. I will rejoice to read your story of your belief in God is based on the facts of your experience with Him.