A while back, I went to a charity gospel concert at a church in the nearby city of Muroran. A group from the big city of Sapporo came to perform. Before the concert began, I noticed a white guy sitting next to a Japanese guy, all by themselves in the back of the sanctuary. You have to understand that seeing a non-Japanese person around here is a rare occurence indeed. To illustrate, a few months ago, two new ALTs (assistant language teachers... they help teach English in the schools) from America came to Date. A full page bio on the two of them was written on the city's monthly newsletter... the newsletter has about 16 pages. It was quite an event.
Anyway, back to the story. So, I go over to the two guys to talk for a while because the concert didn't look like it was gonna start for a while. I start talking to the American for a while, but then I realize that the Japanese guy who was sitting next to him wasn't saying anything... but looked like he wanted to talk. Realizing that the Japanese guy probably either couldn't speak English very well, or had little confidence in using the English he knew, I switched to Japanese mode and started talking to him.
The Japanese guy was really interesting. He found out about the concert through the church that he's attending. Apparently, there was a flyer that advertised the concert in the church. He's been going to the church for a few months, but he's not a Christian. So then he starts talking about how much he used to smoke, and how once he started going to the church, he had this growing conviction to stop smoking. And that was it. He stopped. Cold turkey. I tell him my disbelief, asking about any kind of withdrawl symptoms. But he just shakes his head, smiles, and says, "Yeah, I don't have any of that. God's just given me the power to stop." I turn to his American friend, and ask him about the Japanese guy's previous smoking habits. The American smiles. "It's hard not to notice that he's stopped smoking. He used to smoke at least a pack or two a day." I turn back to the Japanese guy for a final look-see. He looked completely relaxed. His hands weren't fidgety or shaky. His eyes weren't shifty.
It's a miracle. I can't think of any other explanation. Read the Bible and you'll see that all these miracles and God-led interventions occurred. Sometimes, we look at our lives and wonder... hey, why don't I see miracles like the people of the Bible did? This guy reminded me that the miracles are there. They're all around. We just have to ask people to hear their stories of how God did incredibly amazing things in their lives.