Expect a Miracle: The Miraculous Things That Happen to Ordinary People

by Dan Wakefield

Much like the warmth and wisdom of Chicken Soup for the Soul, the author of the bestselling Starting Over and Returning offers a rich and diverse sampling of the miracles that occur in the lives of everyday people.The hand of a pianist and the arm of the quarterback are healed. A famous writer gets a feeling that something wonderful is about to happen, then meets the woman he'll marry. A Russian painter captured by the Germans in World War II uses his art to engineer his survival and eventual escape.

Bestselling author Dan Wakefield has assembled numerous inspiring stories -- including entries by Michael Crichton, Rabbi Harold Kushner, actress Kathy Baker, and singer Judy Collins -- designed to help people feeling overwhelmed by daily life, physical disability, mental stress, or substance abuse take charge of their lives through faith, prayer, and a belief that the impossible can happen because: Everything counts. Every word, interaction, or thought may seem to mean nothing at the time, but could create a miracle.

Already a steady seller in hardcover and trade paperback, Expect a Miracle promises to touch an even wider audience in mass market paperback.

"Dan Wakefield takes us on a very personal journey through the land of the miraculous. He's been there and he knows". -- Marianne Williamson

Genres: Spirituality

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995

Reviews

[Alana Cash · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much like Wakefield's writing style - it has energy and flows well. Personally, I enjoy reading stories about people and this book is full of them. What put me off was Wakefield's emphasis on accomplishments - including his own. Each story was introduced with a "bio" and that was basically limited to achievements that would be found on a resume. This is a good marketing ploy - we will certainly believe a story told by a graduate of Yale or Columbia or other Ivy League university. We will certainly believe a story told by the creator of a very successful business. Do I have to have a great resume to experience a miracle? After a while, I stopped reading the introductory credentials and enjoyed the book more.

Wakefield "quoted" Albert Einstein, and it always bothers me when people quote Einstein. I assume this is done to validate their writing or speech with a man who is considered a "genius." However, although he continues to enjoy good PR, Einstein was not a very articulate man - even in German - and probably said less than 1% of what is attributed to him. If you check Einstein's credentials, you'll find that he had a terrible time getting into college and barely graduated and there isn't anything published by him that doesn't have a co-author. Why is that? (oh, with the exception of the 1905 papers which were co-authored by his first wife - who did not put her name on them).

I recommend the book because the stories are enjoyable.

[Diana-Michaela Shaffner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expect a miracle is essentially a collection of various stories people have relayed to the author via interviews. The persons who have experienced what they feel was a miracle come from all different walks of life such as addicts or physically ill individuals. A point the book makes clearly is how different we are in our perception of what might have been a miracle. One person's miracle is just another coincidence for someone else, so to speak.
Odd is that the author introduces each person prior to reading their story with a professional bio or resume even if their miracle story has zero to do with their professional life. This is very illfitting for a book on such personal experiences. Yet some of the miracle stories in the book are quite touching. Mr. Wakefield also treats various religious views with equal respect which is a major positive aspect of Expect a Miracle. He closes the book with mentioning how every work such as a piece of art, music or a book has flown through the writer, artist or musician rather than been created by a human alone. We can all be God's tools for his peace and creation if we allow ourselves to be.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mishmash of “miracle” stories—healings, manifestations, interventions—which the author seems to have dredged from his notes, loosely arranged by theme, and added a bit of uninspired commentary to call a book.

Of the many places where miracles regularly occur around the world, for example, only Lourdes is discussed in any detail but without any insight into the metaphysics of place, such as telluric currents that increase the probability of miracles occurring there or the miracle of water itself. (Think Emoto.) Instead, Wakefield writes about the carnival atmosphere without exploring the substance below the superficial gloss of commercialism. Similarly, the dramatic healing of a woman dying from MS supposedly tells us all we need to know about Our Lady of Knock, the “Irish Lourdes,” as if the “miracle” were self-explanatory. What’s the rest of the story about Knock and Our Lady? Did the miracle happen “to” this woman, or did it well up from deep within her own being? Maybe a combination of both?

You’d never know from reading this book.

[Iona Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Wakefield explores miracles of all sorts within all religious persuasions. The book is extremely well-written.

While reading the first chapter I was on the point of giving up the book since I found it too cerebral, but it became more interesting for me as we really got into the miracles.

The chapter about Lourdes is perhaps the most memorable for me. It turned out that though miracles of physical health are few and far between, many who visit Lourdes return transformed in faith and outlook.

But there was a tale of an outstanding miracle at Knock, “the Irish Lourdes”, where a lady suffering from MS, who had been paralyzed from the waist down for three years, experienced a wondrous instant miracle, rose from her stretcher and walked. The muscles in her legs had been wasted, but she was healed, and remained so. In the church she had been placed under a statue of our Lady of Knock, and had prayed to her not for a cure, since she knew she was going to die, but for her children, when she had heard a “whispering” voice telling her to get up.

The book contains a chapter about miracles of healing, one on miracles of recovery from alcoholism and addiction in general, and chapters on miracles of love, creating, encounter, presence and, finally, everyday miracles.

This is an absolutely inspiring, spiritual book, which will cleanse your soul (if you read it. I recommend it strongly, despite my initial reservations.

[Sean Sexton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Expect a Miracle is mainly a collection of personal stories about miraculous events, collected by the author after interviewing a number of people. The collection includes some of the typical miracle stories that we'd normally expect when we think of miracles–e.g. a woman confined to a wheelchair for years leaps up and begins walking after a visit to a shrine of the Virgin Mary. But the book also includes more "mundane" miracles–stories of chance encounters, discovered loves, kind acts, etc. The latter are by far more prevalent in the book, but are equally as compelling as the more unbelievable variety. And they underscore Wakefield's fundamental theme–that if we were all more open to the serendipity of the miraculous, we would begin to discover and experience more miracles in our own lives. Though it gets a bit dry and plodding at times, there are enough touching stories that the book is basically pretty uplifting.

[Cws]

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