Godwinks and Giving Up

As I mentioned in the MLIW post, I’m not always up to date on the latest phrases or abbreviations.  While we were on vacation, my sister introduced me to the term “Godwink.” Turns out, I knew about Godwinks in my life, but I wasn’t familiar with the term.If you aren’t, either, here’s an example of one.

I was recently wandering through an antique mall/flea market with a friend of mine, and while she walked, she told me about a situation that sort of disturbed me. I could feel myself getting stressed and anxious, but it was one of those things that I could do absolutely nothing about. So I took a deep breath and prayed for God to take care of it and help me to let it go. In the prayer, I mentioned the verse that says a sparrow never falls outside of God’s will. He’s sovereign and watching over even tiny birds’ lives, I told myself. Suddenly that song, “His eye is on the sparrow” was running through my head.

And now for the Godwink.

At that precise moment, we moved to a new booth in the market, and the display table in front was covered with…sparrows! It was a line of products—figurines, paper products, keychains—featuring sparrows.

The term “Godwink” is credited to SQuire Rushnell. Here’s what he says on his webpage:

A godwink is what some people would call a coincidence, an answered prayer, or simply an experience where you'd say, "Wow, what are the odds of that!"…Think about when you were a kid and someone you loved gave you a little wink across the dining room table...That's what a godwink is too: a message of reassurance from above, directly to you, out of six billion people on the planet, saying "Hey kid...I'm thinking of you! Keep the faith! You're never alone."

I don’t know if the next instance really counts. It’s more common than the other example, a little more vague. All I know is that I’ve been really tired for weeks. Even after vacation—maybe even because of vacation!—I’ve felt a little weary and overwhelmed by the busyness of life. I can’t seem to find time to work on things that are important to me, and then the weariness makes me wonder why I even think of adding to an already overloaded schedule. Why do I continually fret over writing or other things that I think are meaningful, but are probably worthless to other people, or to God?

So while in this state, I passed a wayside pulpit, and instead of one of their cute puns, the newly-changed sign just said, “Never Give Up. Galatians 6:9.”

So of course I had to look up Galatians 6:9. Here’s the NIV version: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

It didn’t make me feel less tired or more energetic, but the verse did help me keep plugging away for a few more days.

So how about you? Do you believe in “Godwinks”? Have you had one lately?