Coincidentals

Before or after you read this post I hope you will consider and respond to the Thurvey question, which appears in the post immediately below this one.

A question of faith has been on my mind for awhile now. I believe in God. I pray a lot. But if you don't I still think my question is something you may think about from time to time, just from a different direction.

I have been talking with God about a particular bothersome situation for a few months now. I am not asking that anyone's freedom of choice be affected, or even that the natural laws of physics be suspended. In Star Trek terms, the prime directive would not be violated by what I am asking. I just want to know how God feels about something, and how I should proceed. I have looked for answers written on the steamed bathroom mirror, the alignment of spilled coffee beans on the counter, the arrangement of pasta in a dish (it could be written in cursive if that were the case). But alas, no handwriting on the wall, or anywhere else.

But then when I least expect it some ridiculous convergence of events happens, which in my mind could not happen out of sheer randomness, that has direct relevance to my problem. But I don't know whether what I want to be a sign is in fact some sort of divine intentional message, or just a random occurrence that I seize as an answer out of desperation because I am looking so hard for guidance.

Lots of folks say that these coincidences are just random. They say that I attribute more value to them than they actually represent because I am looking for something that is not there. I think that is right sometimes. But I don't know about all the time.

But bizarre coincidences do happen in our lives. The question "what are the chances of . . . " is fairly common. Perhaps we notice them because they are relevant to something going on in our lives that is important to us.

Some of us think of these coincidences as miraculous because they are a departure from the normal course of events that we attribute to God. But maybe that's not right. Maybe they happen all the time. Maybe they are not the miraculous exception, but the norm. Maybe we think they are rare because we just do not live with our eyes open. We are only aware when we are desperately seeking answers to our own problems that we can't handle by ourselves. I don't know.

Or maybe our minds are more powerful than we think. Perhaps when two or more people are intensely thinking about the same thing there is some kind of collective power that tends to bring them together for resolution. I don't know.

But for today I know I feel better than I did yesterday because a ridiculous convergence occurred. I am thankful for that, whatever it is.

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