Agnostic Chicago Tribune reporter has his own 'God Friended Me' moment
Chicago Tribune columnist Jerry Davich, a self-described agnostic, says he experienced his own “God Friended Me” moment when his phone randomly texted the word “God” during a moment of frustration.
Davich has made a career out of shining a light on society’s “darkest corners” while offering a “voice to the voiceless,” his bio says. He’s written thousands of articles and witnessed many things, but no experience up to this point has led him to seek God, he said.
“While standing over a sink in a hospital restroom, my iPhone slipped out of my hands and onto the floor,” Davich wrote in his latest column for the Chicago Tribune with the headline, “‘God' text befuddles this agnostic.”
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“I had just sent an update to my fiancée on a loved one’s emergency surgery. After drying my hands, and cursing about my feebleness, I leaned down and picked up my phone, hoping its screen didn’t crack,” he said.
“I quickly glanced at my phone and one word — God. — appeared out of nowhere on my end of our text exchange. I didn’t type it and I didn’t say it using my audio texting tool. It just popped up.”
The writer said he looked at his phone and the mirror in bewilderment. He looked around but didn't see anyone else in the room.
“I was alone. Or was I?” Davich questioned.
“God? Of all the words that could have popped up out of the blue, it was God. Really? I don’t know how it got there. I don’t know why. And I’m not quite sure how to explain it.”
Davich, 56, says he was a cynical atheist in his teenage years but now considers himself to be a “reborn agnostic.” What he was most perplexed by was that he thought these sorts of “God winks” only happened to people who looked for them.
He decided to document the account on his social media page and instantly people began to compare his experience to the premise of the new CBS series “God Friended Me.”
"God Friended Me," which drew 10.45 million viewers in its debut episode last year, tells the story of an atheist who receives a friend request from God. The show is based around an outspoken atheist and his quest to find the person behind the "God account" on Facebook who continues to send him on missions to help various people around New York City.
The Christian Post reached out to Davich to ask whether the mysterious text has changed his mind about God's existence.
"I’ve been open to the possibility of God’s existence since my teenage years. Still waiting for a credible sign, though every Christian I know keeps telling me I’ve been receiving signs for decades(!!). (My closest friends are pastors and believers, and a Catholic bishop.) They also keep telling me that I am a Christian in the closet," the Metro columnist said.
In his post, he noted that he appreciated the moment of comfort during such a tense moment at the hospital.
“I sincerely enjoyed the experience. Regardless of the ‘how’ and ‘why’ aspects, I sincerely appreciated ‘when’ and ‘where’ it happened, and also ‘who’ may or may not have appeared on my phone,” he said.
