“Hearing the truth is not the same as understanding it. When we hear the truth and apply it to our lives, that is to understand it: which is wisdom. Truth works through wisdom and is inhibited when we lack understanding (and charity). …
There are many times when we know what the truth or the right thing is but don’t act on in accordance with it. Trouble results. We may enter into a “series of unfortunate events.” When the truth has been presented to us but we keep on with whatever wrong or mistake or imperfection we are doing … God sends hints through the words that people speak to us or events in our lives or uneasiness in spirit and often sends and resends, warns and re-warns, in tiny ways, in small ways: then, in larger (and larger) ways. A lack of peace turns into anxiety.
When we’re cognizant of this –– when we “get it,” when we have taken the time to carefully note what happens around and in us –– hopefully we do something about wrongful habit.
When we don’t, when we don’t see His messages, or choose to ignore … the nudges turn into a push; bigger nudges. Soon there is a shove. A little bit of bad luck becomes a bigger incident of bad luck. A little nudge becomes that push. A warning that was whispered is now said aloud, even shouted.
Bad luck turns into a “misfortune.”
— Michael Brown (1952) Catholic Author and Public Speaker