By Carolyn Boston, March 5, 2020 — I don’t believe in luck. And I Googled it, to see if there was a purified definition of what luck is and there really isn’t – luck is an adjective that describes something else. But I know that I have been blessed. And I had an awesome experience back in the ’90s with my girlfriend and I.
We were both working hard, we hardly had any money and we wanted to go to the very first TD Jakes conference in Atlanta. We talked on the phone and she said: “I really want to go!” And I said, “I do too, but I don’t have a dime, I don’t have a plane ticket, and I don’t have lodging money…” And she said, “Look, we’ll just pray about it.”
So I put it in the back burner. I said, “That’s not gonna happen,” with all that’s involved and the money that’s involved with the conference. Well about a couple days later she called me and she said, “We’ve got tickets!” I said, “What do you mean we’ve got tickets?” She said, “We’ve got airplane tickets!” I said, “But I didn’t…Wh- How did you get them?!” Turns out that her son works for the airlines, and he got tickets for both of us. And we weren’t flying coach- we flew first class. I had never flown first class! So I was like, “What in the world!” And she said, “I told you- I told you – I told you, if we wanted to go we’d be able to go!”
So we got ourselves together, packed, and headed out to Atlanta. Before that- her cousin lives on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. And her cousin stays in a trailer home (which you can’t even tell the difference between a trailer home and a regular home; they’re gorgeous). So we get out there and I was concerned about paying for a hotel and she said to me “Oh no, we’re going to stay with my cousin.” And I said “What, she’s got a trailer home…” She said, “We can have the whole trailer while we’re there for the conference.” And I was really kind of freaked out. So I said “Okay..”
When we got to Atlanta we went to the conference which was absolutely awesome and we just could not believe how things flowed. I believe there’s a purpose and a plan for everything, and I do know that what was in our hearts- those prayers were answered.
So we missed our bus on the first night of the conference and we were staying outside of Atlanta. But here comes this lady, and we’re sitting on the steps saying, “How are we gonna get back?” And this lady says to us, “I’ll take you!” I never saw her before, my girlfriend never saw her… she said, “I’ll take you back to where you live.” Okay! Second night something happened and we couldn’t get back where we were supposed to go and we stopped being fearful and thinking nothing was going to work out because after all these things happened we figured it was in the hands of God and he was going to take care of us. So what happened is, I hear this lady’s voice and she says “Carolyn?” And I turned around and I said “Yes?” And she said, “What are you doing here?” And I said, “Carol, what are you doing here?” She said, “Well I’m here with my church for the conference.” This is a dear friend of mine, I’ve known her for years and I never knew she was going to the conference and she was right behind me. So she said, “Come and stay with us.” We stayed with her in her hotel room with all these ladies, they had plenty of space. So we had free accommodations that night.
Anyway, to make a long story short we never got to spend any money on the trip- we didn’t spend a dime. I’m not kidding you. So we took each other to McDonald’s and said look, “Let me treat you” and she said, “No let me treat you.” We couldn’t spend a dime.
I got back to Philly. We just had an awesome time. And I thought, “OK Lord, I need to spend some money,” because I had all his money saved up. It was Appreciation Day for SEPTA so I got to ride home for free. So I’m telling you, that was an empowering, challenging, awesome experience. And it’s that thing that I believe that really gives you the strength to move forward, and not to be afraid. And in terms of luck, I say that I feel blessed.