I had an experience that respecting the course of events led me into blessings when I lived in Japan. This experience is my origin of practicing religious faith. The events that changed totally my lifestyle happened to me that night. My friend Mr. Yamada and I left for the Konkokyo Airaku Church in Kurume-city after his work. The Airaku Church is a church of Konkokyo religion in Japan. The Konkokyo religion was established by Konko Daijin about 150 years ago in Okayama-prefecture, Japan. He drove about 60 miles for two and a half hours from my home to the Airaku Church. It was a long trip for us because we did not have a proper expressway at that time. We arrived at the church at some minutes past 10 p.m.; then, we directly went to the worship hall in order to pray to God TenchiKanenoKami to express our appreciation of the safe trip. It was dark in the worship hall. There was no light except for a pair of small light on the altar. It was very quiet since there was nobody except my friend and I. We got down on our knees on tatami mats, bowed deeply until forehead's touching a tatami mat to the altar, and began to pray to God TenchiKanenoKami.

After a while I looked at him to ask him to let us go to a bedroom as I wanted to go to the bedroom to sleep. However, he had fallen asleep while praying. I wondered what to do next, so I prayed to God, "Oh God, what should I do?" I was reminded of Rev. Soichiro Otsubo's teachings which were "To respect the course of events," and "To accept what happens to me without a word." I tried following the teachings as an experiment. I left it to the course of events without a word although I wanted to wake him up to go to the bedroom. I did not wake him up and was waiting for him to awake from his sleep by himself. I believed that God would wake him up at the right time. About half an hour later, he suddenly woke up and said, "Let's go to the bedroom to sleep." Then, I followed him.

We came across Rev. Takeuchi by accident at the entrance to our religious master's room on our way to the bedroom since he showed up from another way in a dark passage. He invited us to join the meeting which was been holding at Rev. Nakamura's room. We followed him and entered the room. There were several people gathering together from long distances, and they were discussing religious experiences. I found some people whom I wanted to meet and to talk with. One of them was Mrs. Horiuchi, who came from Yukuhashi-city, more than two hours' drive from the church. The other was Ms. Kaida, who came from Usuki-city, more than five hours' drive from the church. I was very impressed by the meeting because it was my first experience to attend such a meeting. We had talked about our religious faith until dawn and had a really good time.

I became aware of God's works and realized that my friend's sleeping in the worship hall was God's working in order to bestow blessings on us through this experience. It was a right way that I repressed my selfishness and did not wake him up. If I had woken him up and had gone to the bedroom earlier with him, I would not have met Rev. Takeuchi and would not have joined such a helpful meeting on my religious faith. I had an important experience that leaving it to the course of events without a word led me into blessings. As a result of this experience, my lifestyle was completely changed, and these teachings, to respect the course of events and to accept what happens to me without a word, became my fundamental creeds. Please try to leave it to the course of events without a word, so you can receive divine blessings.