Neale Donald Walsch - When God Steps In, Miracles Happen

Other Books by Neale Donald Walsch

Conversations with God Book 1

Conversations with God Book 2

Conversations with God Book 3

Friendship with God: An Uncommon Dialogue

Neale Donald Walsch on Abundance

Neale Donald Walsch on Holistic Living

Neale Donald Walsch on Relationships

Bringers of the Light

ReCreating Yourself

Conversations with God Book 1 Guidebook

Meditations from Conversations with God Book 1

The Reference Book

Questions and Answers on Conversations with God

Meditations from Conversations with God Book 2

The Little Soul and the Sun

Communion with God

Wedding Vows from Conversations with God

Copyright 2011

by Neale Donald Walsch

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review.

Cover and Interior design by Frame25 Productions

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Charlottesville, VA 22906

www.hrpub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

ISBN 978-1-57174-653-5

TS

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed on acid-free paper in United States of America

There are more things in Heaven and Earth,

Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

William Shakespeare

For you, Mom.

Iwant to acknowledge Greg Brandenburgh, associate publisher at Hampton Roads, whose idea it was to re-issue this text with a new wrapping ten years after its initial release, thereby carrying its message to a whole new audience. My thanks to my former spouse and still wonderful friend Nancy, whose guiding hand and editorial genius was all over the first publication of this material. My deep appreciation, as well, to Rita Curtis, a good and steady friend, who edited the personal stories here after reading hundreds of submissions, and whose extraordinary commitment to the original project a decade ago is absolutely what made it possible. And finally, my gratitude to my wife and partner Em Claire, who enriches my life beyond description, allowing me to continue to offer my humble gifts to our worldand whose own contributions to the healing and betterment of people's lives has deeply inspired me.

The book you are holding is a re-issue of a book I produced in 2001 under the title Moments of Grace. It seems inconceivable to me that ten years have passed since this material was originally released. I am pleased that Hampton Roads Publishing Company made the decision to distribute this new edition, because I don't think this book's message can be placed before the public too often.

Do you find it as hard to believe as I do that we have concluded the first decade of the 21st Century? Think of it. Fully ten percent of the next 100 years (as we spoke about it so futuristically in the late nineties) has already passed!

This is not an unimportant observation. It should make it clear to all of us that years fly by very quicklyand that each of us has a limited amount of time here. And the time that we do have is being gobbled up by more and more activity every day, have you noticed? It's all we can do to stop ourselves from taking our cell phone into the shower. (God forbid we should be out of reach for ten blissful minutes.) The laptop is powered up often before we even get dressed. (The better to get out to work instantly, there being so much to do...)

The result of this insane increase in the speed of our lives is that we do more, but we are less. Less rested, less relaxed, less peaceful even as more inner peace is needed to meet the day's expanded requirements. Less centered, less joyful, less confident in life even as more inner confidence is needed to face each day's enlarged challenges.

I've thought about this a lot. What could give us more confidence in life during these hectic times? And what could bring us more inner peace?

Perhaps if we knew that we are not alone in facing life...

That's why I approved the reissue of this book. I know that if more people read this material, more people will begin to experience the true joy that life is; they will begin to see the absolute treasure that Each Moment is.

I want to wake everyone who reads these words to the wonder of every year, every month, every week, every day, every hour, every minute, and every second. Each is a gift of unparalleled proportion. Every breath, every single inhalation, is an offering of love from God.

I want to invite you to give yourself an experience of that in your lifebecause when you can experience life moment-by-moment as a treasure, you begin to see all of life differently. Then you recognize the wonder that God has built into the whole of life. Relaxing into the individual moments allows us all to see miracles. And nothing could give us more confidence than knowing that we have a Miracle Maker at our side.

There is a way you can do this, even in our hectic world. You can stop whatever you are doing at least six times a day... just... stop... close your eyes, and take a wonderfully slow, deep breath.

When I say take a slow deep breath, I mean no less than five seconds on the inhale and five seconds on the exhale. It's a relaxing, let's-just-stop-everything breath.

This practice takes 60 seconds a day. That's one minute a day to get in touch with the Gift of Life and the incredibleness of This Momentno matter what it is appearing to offer.

You know what? You could go ahead and do this right now. Just stop everything right now, close your eyes, and take a slow, deep, ten-second breath.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Good.

Very good.

Now if you do that five more times today, and six times every day, and if you say inwardly with this breath I welcome The Divine, you will open an avenue of awareness to the presence of God. Soon you will see the Divine in all places, in all people, and in all moments. You will experience not only that there is a God, that God exists, but also that God is with you all the time, in every place and situation. And this, my wonderful friend, can change your life.

The new title that the publisher has given this book points to the times when God steps in... and while it's a catchy title, I find it a bit off the mark, implying as it does that there is a time when God does not. There is, in fact, no such time. God is Everywhere Present, and there is not a single moment in which God steps out for a cup of coffee or something, and is not around.

My conversations with God made this very clear to me. And so for me the question is not whether God is with us, but whether we are with God; not whether God has stepped in, but whether we have stepped away from God. It is not a matter of when and if God notices us, but when and if we notice God.

Noticing God changes everything. It makes us aware of God's presenceand of God's presents. And the more we tune into God's gifts, the more we receive them. Like radio or television signals, they are always there, but we have to turn on the receiver to experience them and to enjoy them.