I've been thinking lately about the two aspects of God's will, which I always knew as purposeful and permissive. Purposeful being things that God makes happen, and permissive being things that God allows to happen, always with the purpose of displaying His sovereignty. One day recently as I was listening to my podcasts I heard a new term for God's permissive will: providential. While the word itself was not new to me, applying it in this way was: all of mankind's free will decisions, inexplicably, miraculously weaving themselves together into the completion of God's plan.
So it was with this in mind that I realized, much like an episode of Lost, that there are no coincidences. One example that came screaming home to me was how I reconnected with God and found my church. My wife, who works for Weight Watchers, was working at a meeting with another woman who happened to be married to the Youth Pastor at Avalon Church. She had invited us to join her a few times, and when we finally accepted I knew I had found my new home.
So, where's the serendipitous part? Well, in order to work for Weight Watchers you must have gone through the program. Which means you had to be heavy at some point. We were; and we would not have had any success if we had not done the program together.
Basically, if Heather hadn't been working with Brooke, if Heather didn't work for Weight Watchers, if we hadn't gone through the program, I wouldn't be where I am today spiritually. What I'm really getting at is if I had been able to control what I ate back in 2003 none of this would have happened. Coincidence? Random occurrence of the universe? That sounds about as likely as an explosion at the printing plant resulting in a perfectly formed dictionary.
God is always orchestrating events in your life to bring you closer to Him. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, and sometimes (as in my case) it takes years to see the effects. But there's nothing coincidental or serendipitous about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment