If you are like me with the attention span of a monkey, you often end up reading two books concurrently, possibly never finishing either. The two books surrounding this post are two books that I have been reading at the same time. The one to the left, I read because a member mentioned it, and Oprah’s recommendation of it made me immediately skeptical. The one on the right I read because I try to read every book that Philip Yancey writes since I consider him a C.S Lewis for our times. So to be honest, I was reading one book expecting to find folly and another to find wisdom. And while I did not finish the former and am still working on the latter, one idea that was mentioned in both books collided in my mind. The point of the book to the left is that God speaks to us through coincidences. Happy coincidences are God ways of assuring us of his love towards us and signs of his approval of our lives. They are his loving “winks.” Immediately, being one who naturally is leery of the idea of God speaking and guiding people apart from his Word, I reacted against this idea. However, I could not totally disagree that surely God is in some of what we deem coincidences, even if He is not “speaking” in them.
And then I read a section of Yancey’s book which revolves around the idea of prayer’s effect on the world. One of the conclusions was something like this, “When I pray, coincidences happen. When I do not, they do not.” His point was that many times God’s answers to prayer are not done by breaking into the world to stop the natural events of life, but rather by arranging those events for the benefit of his people. His answers are many time found in the coincidences of life.
So is God in coincidences, or are they just coincidences? Are they God winks, or one of Satan’s many ways to distract us from where God truly wants us to listen for His voice and guidance? Are coincidences answers to prayer, or just our fragile faith trying to craft tangible reasons to believe in the power of prayer?
I am not sure. I still am leery of directing people to place their faith in something as fleeting as a coincidence. After all, does God then also get the credit for the bad coincidences as well in life, like when I step into the pulpit at just the right angel to nearly scrape a layer of flesh off my skull? And can we truly judge God heart towards us by weighing the amount of positive coincidences in our lives? I think those of us who tend to live with a solid belief in Murphy’s Law would then leave the faith behind. My tradition wants me to just say, if you want to know what god wants or how he feels about you, just open the Word. While that is certainly where we must begin and end, I am careful not to limit the ways that God can uplift his people’s spirits. I care not to quench the Spirit.
If you coincidence convinces you of something that contradicts the Word’s guidance, I am confident that you need to turn off your new age extra-sensitive perceptions of the world around you and dwell in the word for a while. But if your coincidence only strengthens the beliefs the Spirit has worked in you through the Word, surely God could be involved. I guess the answer is an extended, “I do not know.” I really hope that some of you will adds your thoughts to this post and any scriptural narratives that might be of use to discerning this topic. Does God ever strengthen faith through coincidence in the scriptures? I look forward to your comments.
