Wednesday, November 4, 2009

There are no coincidences

In Library Science we talk a lot about serendipity. In a broad sense this word means coming upon something that you weren't looking for. In the library sense it is how, often when you are looking for something, there will be something nearby that you didn't even know to look for, and it is even better than what you were looking for. Librarians know this happens because of classification, but it's still neat when we see it happen!

As a Christian I am not afraid to say God is in control of every little thing that happens. Even when we do something wrong that isn't in His plan, He is still able to make it work out for His glory. Knowing this, it's still exciting to see things work out. Let me tell you about what I saw today.
It's getting to be past the halfway point of the semester, when we kind of know what we're doing better than we did at the beginning of the semester, but more stuff is starting to be due at the same time, and I haven't done enough work on it yet because I was still learning about it. This gets a little stressful, but I reminded myself that I need to stop worrying about what I need to do later and just do what I need to do now! I remembered the verse that says "...do not worry about tomorrow..."
Then I decided it was time to do my devotions and get to the other stuff afterwards. Right now at Zion Church we're doing our annual "40-Day Journey," and we have a devotional book written by some members of the church that we can all work through. Today's reading was about the freedom we have in Christ that the world cannot give us and no one can take it away. Last night I watched the first episode of the remake of the series V, and I was reminded of how a totalitarian government can make what they have to offer look really good, but it really takes away everyone's freedom. I don't think that parallel is a coincidence.
Usually in the readings in this devotional there are some lines on the page to take notes on after the Scripture reading, but today there weren't, so I went to my personal journal to write stuff down. My journal has random Scripture verses on every other page, and the next page today had Matthew 6:34 printed on it--the same verse I had been thinking about earlier about not worrying about tomorrow. God is showing me that He knows what I am thinking and feeling about today, and He has always known that today I would turn to that page in the journal and that would be the verse I needed to read.
There are no coincidences--watch the last part of the movie Signs for similar examples, but it means more when it happens in real life!

1 comment:

Ann said...

I know what you mean. Sometimes I will be reading Daily Bread or a Bible passage a few days after my regular reading schedule because I was lazy. Often the passage corresponds exactly to something I am going through that day and I know it was a special message from God who knew that I would be reading it late! Isn't it great how He uses our weaknesses to accomplish His purposes?