“When I pray, coincidences happen; when I don’t, they don’t. Rather than dissecting such incidents, I try to use them as building blocks to faith, to see them as ‘God-incidences’ instead of coincidences. If I remember (and I blush at how often I forget), I can commit to God in advance of a difficult letter I must answer, a phone call to a needy relative, a social engagement I dread. The very process of presenting these requests to God puts me in a different frame before the event. And if I remember to pause afterward and reflect on what happened, I see His hand in even the most mundane moments,” an awesome quote about prayer from Archbishop William Temple.
A rabbi taught that experiences of God can never be planned or achieved. “They’re spontaneous moments of grace, almost accidental.” His student asked, “Rabbi, if God-realization is just accidental, why do we work so hard doing all these spiritual practices?” The rabbi replied, “To be as accident-prone as possible!”