When I was in college, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I went to an open-air concert. It was presented by the late music composer and singer, John Hartford. It was a great concert!

One of his songs stuck with me and has had a real meaning in my life. The lyrics occasionally come into my mind with several experiences. I guess because I have been in the right place at the right time for special events in my life to occur.

It’s a fun song and the lyrics go like this:

“I would not be here if I hadn’t been there,
and I wouldn’t ‘a been there if I hadn’t just turned
on Wednesday the third in the late afternoon
got to talking with George who works out in the back
and only because he was getting off early
to go see a man at a Baker Street bookstore
with a rare first edition of Steamboats and Cotton
a book he would never have sought in the first place
had he not been inspired by a fifth grade replacement
school teacher in Kirkwood who was just picked at random . . . “

And on and on like that. But I think you get the idea. “I would not be here if I hadn’t been there.”

I feel like that about so many things in my life that have happened to me just because I’d been in the right place for such things to happen. Some things are just meant to be.

For example, I was asked to teach classes about estate planning, the Founding Fathers, and The Trial of Christ, first because I made my living by teaching about estate planning. Which led to meeting with Cavett Robert, the founder of the National Speaker’s Association. Which led to being asked by a religious leader to talk to his group about the trial of Christ from a lawyer’s standpoint. Which then led to speaking about the Founding Fathers at BYU. Which led to requests that I write a book about what I had spoken about. Which led to five different books. Which led to my service on the National Speaker’s Association Board of Directors in the local Chapter. And on and on. But I think you get the idea.

I have been so blessed by circumstances which I thought were unusual and beyond my control. But there you go. I bet you’ve had times in your life where you wouldn’t have been there if it hadn’t been for that dime store purchase you made for your friend, and only because . . . Haven’t you?

I think that’s how many of our Founding Fathers considered things that were happening all around them, and preparing a Declaration of Independence and a U.S. Constitution. George Washington didn’t really want to be President, but because of where he was and what had happened to him, he became our first President. And on and on. Perhaps there is someone in charge?