FOOTBALL GAME REVIVES FAITH
Bill Foley of Attleboro, Mass., was watching the last regular-season New England Patriots game on TV on Dec. 29, 2002, when he decided to try an experiment.
"At the time, I had serious doubts that God existed. Friends had suggested inviting God into everyday situations to try to effect a contact with Him. So I decided to invite God to watch the game with me."
Foley talked to God throughout the game, which the Patriots were losing. At one point, he says, he even turned to God and invited Him to restore Foley's weak faith by helping the Patriots overcome an 11-point deficit with five minutes to play.
The game took a sudden turnaround, and the Patriots won. Foley could barely believe it.
"I realized I had somehow ended up on my knees in front of the TV. I was definitely in an altered state of consciousness," he says.
"I can't believe you did that; you're really real," he thought. But doubts immediately began to creep back into his mind.
The TV was still on and the audio off. "You've seen this sort of thing a hundred times; it's a coincidence. You're deluding yourself," he thought.
As a beer commercial faded to black on the TV screen, Foley says one word filled the screen.
"BELIEVE," the ad said.
And Foley says he did: "I laughed and cried, and I've never been the same since."
Read the rest at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-11-21-close-encounters_x.htm
1 comment:
Once there was a time when I was amazed by the number 37. It was everywhere. It appeared everywhere. I saw it in commercials, on the backs of uniforms, receipts, streetsigns, on and on. And each appearance was blessed. The price of the late-night hotel while driving long-distance and it's raining and death lurks around every bend: $37.37. When luck seems to have turned around for some small reason related to a hope that regulates the up and down of daily life, the CVS receipt says my change is $3.37. And then one day I tell all this to a doubter and list remarkable appearances now forgotten and tell him, look around and you'll probably see the number somewhere. And he looked and he didn't see and he doubted, doubted, doubted. So I tapped his watch. The hands pointed to 3 and 7. Amazing. It was early spring and the ocean was still glazed and choppy and frothy with the middle of winter. So we walked to the beach and he drowned me in the cold surf.
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