Did that psychic really predict my future?

When I was around 10 years old, I accompanied some family members to a psychic reading. Though I wasn’t the subject of the reading, before we left, the psychic looked at me and said,

“You will be a writer when you grow up, as long as you don’t let a man get in the way.”

What the psychic said never left me. Throughout my teen years I envisioned myself single well into my 30’s, living in a tiny, urban apartment where I wouldn’t see the light of day for weeks on end because I would be so focused on my latest book. And when I would finally emerge, whatever I produced would be brilliant and it would make me wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. Obviously I knew next to nothing about how much writers are paid for books.

I can’t deny that I have grown up to be a writer. I have a passion for it that wells up within me. Most of the time I satisfy this urge in my journal because it serves double duty by helping me process my feelings. Occasionally the fruits of this passion wind up here in the form of rambling posts that beg for an editor.

Was the psychic really able to look at me for 30 seconds and predict my future?

Or did her one sentence analysis of my future make me believe writing was my gift? Or was I carrying around my little notebook and pencil, tipping her off to one of my childhood hobbies?

I’ll probably never know. But one thing I do know is that believing I knew something so concrete about my future impacted the way I lived my life. Even when I was dating in college, I remember thinking that I needed to be with a man who would fully support my dream to write a book because that psychic told me I was supposed to be a writer. Whether or not it was always God’s will for me to write, that line of thinking wasn’t good. Rather than trusting in God for the future He had planned for me, I leaned on the understanding of a person who didn’t know the first thing about me or my heart.

I know many people who believe seeing a psychic or a medium is harmless fun. I used to agree with them, but now I sincerely believe it is inspired by evil.

It’s just like original sin.

Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge. They stopped trusting in the Lord and pursued knowledge they weren’t supposed to have. One of the consequences was bringing death into the world. Obviously a very grave sin! This is why I get so nervous when I hear my faithful friends talking about how excited they are to watch Long Island Medium and other similar shows.

There are days that test my resolve, where I’d love to know what the future holds for us, but I cling to my faith and know that those things aren’t for me to know right now. The present is for trusting the Lord with my future.

“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11