As I have struggled to figure out what God’s will is for my life over the last 60 years, I have wondered about His methods of guiding. One of them is circumstances that can act like traffic lights or direction arrows in traffic. Circumstances are tricky because the devil can mess with our circumstances, and also we often just read things into the circumstances that God never intended. I frequently recognize the circumstances after deciding, look backward, and recognize that I didn’t choose; God was pushing me in a particular direction.

When I was a senior in High School, I received a letter from the University of Washington offering me a full-ride scholarship. I was one of eight Seniors who met in Vancouver, Washington and rode in a van together to the University of Washington for a four-day school tour. We stayed in the dorm, ate in the cafeteria, went on school tours, and listened to presentations on how great the University was.

My mom bought me a new sports coat for the event. It was corduroy and green, and it had gold-colored buttons. A large fountain was in the center of a plaza with a pool all around the fountain. The pool was about two feet deep, and it had lots of money because of the various coins thrown in. As I walked next to it, one of the buttons on my coat popped off, and I went into the pool. I removed my jacket and long-sleeved shirt and reached into the pool to recover my button. A College Security guy on the other side of the pool started yelling and blowing his whistle as he ran around the pool toward me. Many people were around, and they were all looking at me and the security guy. I pulled my arm out of the water and waited for him to get to where I was. After he yelled at me for a few minutes, I pointed at my button in the water and explained what I was doing. After he yelled at me a little more, telling me I should Have gotten permission first, I asked him if I could retrieve my button, and he said yes. He even got a towel for me to dry off my arm before putting my shirt and coat back on.

Being a shy farm boy from a very small town and very introverted, the experience was a major embarrassment to me, and I am convinced that the experience was why I decided not to go to school there. I am also sure that an angel ripped my button off and threw it in that fountain.