Agnostic By Default, Awakened By Design

Chapter 13: Tabitha, Rise

This time, as I read through the Bible, something felt different. Like science—of all things—was trying to tell me something. Numbers had already started following me before I went to jail. Everywhere I looked, there it was: 3:33. Clocks. Receipts. License plates. I couldn’t escape it. I couldn’t explain it. I thought maybe I was going crazy, but something in me kept saying: Pay attention.

Then I got to Acts 9:36—and it stopped me cold.

“Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.”

The name hit me like lightning. My name. I reread the verse over and over, trying to make sense of it. And then came the math: 9 = 3 + 3 + 3. Even 6 = 3 + 3. It all clicked, not logically, but spiritually. The numbers. The timing. My name.

The verse went on to describe how she died—and how they laid her in the upper chamber. Peter came. People showed him the garments she made when she was alive. Then he did something that shattered everything I thought I understood about God:

He cleared the room of doubt.

And said, “Tabitha, rise.”

And she opened her eyes.

I was frozen. Confused. I had always been told only Jesus could raise the dead. But Peter was just… Peter. A man. And if he could say those words and a woman could come back to life, then maybe it meant something more.

Maybe it meant there was something more in me, too.

When I read that Tabitha was called a disciple, I screamed to the top of my lungs:

“I’m a disciple!”

I didn’t even know what that meant yet. I didn’t know what being a disciple required. But something deep inside me knew—it had always been me. And I had no idea how to explain that to anyone. I just knew I couldn’t go back to who I was before I read those words.