Welcome to the Daily Chizuk (encouragement). The Pasuk (verse) in Mishlei (Proverbs) says, “The footsteps of man are from Hashem, and what does man know about his derech (way)?” How many times do we set out to do something and end up doing something completely different? Hashem puts us in various situations all day long, and our emunah (faith) is that everything that happens to us is being directed by Hashem.
Often, Hashem leads us in a concealed manner. This is called derech ha-teva, nature. But ha-teva is the same numerical value as Elokim, which is the name that represents Hashem’s power. Hashem uses nature to communicate with us and direct us. The Chazon Ish writes in his Sefer Emunah U'Bitachon (Faith and Trust) that part of Bitachon (trust) is the belief that there is no mikreh in the world. Nothing just happens. Everything is being directed. Everything is meant by Hashem.
People say, “I want to see Hashem in my life.” The answer to them is, “Hashem is in your life all the time. You just have to open your eyes and look better.” Hashem lets us know that He is with us in concealed ways. Let me give you a little example. The other day, I quoted from a Sefer that talked about a certain tzaddik (righteous person) who would thank Hashem for every little good in his life. The Sefer gave an example of the tzaddik’s bottle falling on the floor and not closing. It didn’t crack. He would thank Hashem. I added a couple of examples of my own. One of them was: if you’re late to catch the train, but it was delayed and you made it anyway, you say thank you to Hashem, because Hashem was really controlling it.
That night, when I recorded the Shiur (lecture), before anybody had heard it, I had a Gemara class. One of the boys asked if he could speak for two minutes about his day. He said that he had a one-day business trip. He was supposed to fly to catch a meeting, have the meeting, and fly back the same day. But his flight got delayed, and he arrived almost two hours late. He had to delay the meeting, and there was no way he would catch the flight back. The airline he was flying with had only one flight returning, and he really didn’t want to stay overnight. At the end of his meeting, he said, “You know what? Hashem is really in charge of the planes. I’m going anyway. I know Hashem could get me back.” He got to the airport and was excited to find out that his flight was delayed by two hours. He said he made the flight, and he said, “Thank you, Hashem, for letting me make the flight.” I told him, “That’s unbelievable, what you’re telling me. I just recorded a couple of hours ago that very example of somebody who was late, made the flight anyway, and thanked Hashem.”
The next day, I was carrying a few goblets in my house, and one of them slipped out of my hand and landed on my foot. It didn’t break. I said, “Thank you, Hashem, that the glass didn’t break.” I said, “Amazing. I just gave this example yesterday, too, about thanking Hashem when things fall and they don’t break.” This is Hashem communicating with us. This is Hashem letting us know that He’s with us. I’m sure these things happen to people all the time. Our job is to open our eyes and realize it’s all Hashem. Somebody else called me the same day and said how unbelievable it was that he saw Hashem communicating to him. The more we look, the more we’ll see. If anybody has some nice Hashgacha Pratit (Divine Providence) stories that they feel others will get chizuk from, please email them to emunahdaily@gmail.com.