The Illusion of Coincidence - Sue's Story

Our church published a devotional book written by members for the 2011 Lenten season.  An April entry is below, followed by my response to the author.

April 5, 2011

Psalm 39:7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?  My hope is in you.” (NIV)

    The Sunday after Easter in 2006, the choir was to sing an awesome arrangement of the Gaither piece “Because He Lives” based on Psalm 39:7.  The lyrics of the chorus:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

    I awakened earlier than I needed that Sunday morning.  Feeling wide-awake enough that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep, I grabbed a book off the nightstand I was reading.  The book, lent by a friend, was about a man who had lost his wife, one of three children, and his mother in a horrific automobile accident.  He was the driver.  I received the book because I’d experienced a tragedy of my own not long before.  I had lost my husband and my son had been living with me for a couple of months. I got home from school one day to find he’d taken his life.  Naturally, I’d been having a difficult time dealing with both losses. 

    The part of the book was about how this man had pulled back from life and had become reclusive.  I had finally gotten to the part where he was coming out of the intense fog that accompanies a tragedy, and he was writing of how he had decided he needed to move forward.  That morning I read, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.  And life is worth the living just because He lives.”  Whoa!  Coincidence?  Definitely not!  It’s how God works.  Feeling more light-hearted than I had in months, I left for church to warm-up the choir for the anthem. 

    I don’t know what was with the choir that morning, but the warm-up wasn’t very inspiring.   I knew they needed a mini-sermon to get them to “Sing it like you mean it.”  I try not to bring personal events into choir practice, but I told them about what had happened that morning: the “God-thing” of reading the lyrics of the anthem we were doing that day, and followed it up by saying, “You all know that about eight months ago I experienced a terrible tragedy.  But I am standing before you and can attest that indeed “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. And life is worth the living just because He lives.”

    ~ Sue Jax

   Good morning Sue,

   Thank you for sharing your story in the GPC devotional.  It attests to the idea that there are no coincidences.  I have a short companion story for you.

   I was watching the beginning of the D-backs – Cubs game yesterday when it was time for me to leave to attend a writers group to which I belong.  I hesitated to leave because of the game and an attitude that the group is one of those “feel good” writers groups that does not do much to advance my skills.  My arrogance still can get the better of me.  I didn’t think I’d get much out of it, but I felt called to be there.  I dragged my tush off the couch and readied to go.  Before leaving, I retrieved a book that I wanted to share with the leader in hope that she would share it with the others. 

   Last month’s topic for the group was loss and grief; this month’s is memories of love.  The book I took was the book you described, Jerry Sittser’s A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss.

   On arrival I handed the book to the leader who did nothing with it but return it to me later.  I wasn’t disappointed because I didn’t expect anything of it since we were on to reading love stories.  Afterward, however, a young woman who I had seen just once approached me.  She and her teenage son attend together; she is working on a book to share the Word, and he is a Christian rapper.  She asked about my writing and asked if I would lend the book to her.  Of course I would; that is why I took it in the first place.  Joni shared her story, and we talked for more than an hour afterward.  You never know what God holds in our future; but it is worth the living because if we are willing, he will lead us.

   I made a new friend, one who has more to offer to me than I to her.  That we were both there was not a coincidence; God called me to be there. It was but another illusion of coincidence.

   I saw the only run the D-backs scored, and they lost the game.  I missed nothing and have the blessing of a “God-thing” new friendship.

   ~ Michael