Coincidence?

As I sit in a Caribou, spending some time reading, reflecting, and praying, I can’t help but start to see how connected things have been in my life lately.  I guess I can’t help it because it’s part of who I am, according to Strengthfinders (a book and a test to find out potential strengths you have…connectedness is one of mine).  It is really crazy how so many times in life things just seem to connect; our circumstances, thoughts, what we read, what we are exposed to, what the people around us are going through.  For the most part, people would tend to call these things and circumstances “coincidences.” We like to say and think that somehow, someway things just line up for a bigger purpose and meaning in our lives sometimes.  Over the last few years, however, I have begun to realize that these things really aren’t coincidences at all.  As I focus in more and realize more the things that are going on in my life and around me, I have realized that these are intricately orchestrated things that are occurring; circumstances with purpose, as if someone is putting me in certain situations, moving me to read certain material, and interact with certain people to teach me something, or to point me in a specific direction in life.  Let me try to explain as I think about the past month of my life or so.

                

 This summer I spent 6 weeks in Fort Collins, CO at something called New Staff Training as I joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru).  This was a great time as I met people who were heading in the same direction as I, as I learned more about the Bible and Christian Theology, and as I received clarification and familiarity with the organization I was joining staff with.  I will forever have fond memories of this summer.

                

 However, upon returning to my hometown of Spring Valley, WI, it was a bit of a rough transition, to say the least.  The two weeks immediately after returning home proved to be like a rollercoaster.  I was up, and then I was down.  My emotions ranged from excited to move in one direction, to depression of not knowing what I was doing, to being passive and wanting to live a lazy life, to the joy of spending time with friends and family whom I dearly love.  To say the least, I was confused.  I became unsure of my calling into full-time ministry with Cru, and became worried about the future and how I would make it on a missionary’s salary.  This time was a very self-reflective, God-seeking, call-refining time for me.  Although it wasn’t pretty and was at times despairing, I was brought back to the simple and profound truth of trusting in God.  I was brought to Jeremiah 17:5-8 as I have been reading through the Bible in a year.  This was the right passage, at the right time (one of the first God things that I recognized of this past month).  Here is what Jeremiah says:

  

⁵Thus says the LORD:"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
   and makes flesh his strength,

   whose heart turns away from the LORD.
⁶ He is like a shrub in the desert,
    and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
   in an uninhabited salt land.

 ⁷ "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
    whose trust is the LORD.
⁸ He is like a tree planted by water,
   that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
   for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
   for it does not cease to bear fruit."

You see, I realized I was putting my trust in the things of man (myself, money, a job, others, etc.) and my life was characterized by fear and anxiety in the midst of some heat in my life.  It was clear I was like a shrub in a desert and not a tree planted by water.  My eyes were redirected back to God through this timely passage, and as I thought through my circumstances and prayed, it was clear that God was definitely calling me into campus ministry.  I was once again excited for not just the idea of being on campus working with students, but even the support raising process and the opportunity I would have to share what God has been doing in the live’s of students, as well as my own.

Another aspect of that passage that I have been pondering over is the idea of my roots being sent out deep into a life-giving stream.  What does it look like for me to withstand the heat and even drought of support-raising and, more broadly, life?  The other day I decided to rent a couple of movies.  Now one was relatively insignificant other than it was entertaining.  But the other, the other was like gold for my soul.  “Of Gods and Men” is a French movie on a group of Christian monks from France living amongst a Muslim people.  In this movie, an extremist group enters into the story, killing people around them and taking as they please from the poor community they have infiltrated.

What was most interesting in this movie, to me, were a couple of things. The first thing was how these monks lived amongst, served, and loved these people who were clearly following a different set of beliefs and way of life and yet spoke of Christ as Savior openly, confidently, and clearly.  There was a clear mutual love going on, and these Muslim people, referring to themselves as birds, referred to these monks as their branch, and that if they left in the face of these extremists, the community would lose its footing and fall.  Even in the midst of terrorism and cultural/ethnic/religious differences, these Muslim people recognized these devoted Christian men as the foundation of their community.  Not sure how that works, but it did, as this is a true story.   

The second thing that was interesting to me was how devoted these men were to God and to each other.  All around, their love was mind boggling.  They devoted themselves to prayer and seeking the profound truths of God.  I have been researching monasticism (the art of being a monk), not so much because I would like to be a monk, but because I think there is a lot for me to learn about prayer and seeking God through His Word.  I am intrigued and wish to “send my roots out into the water”.  I think these monks have something to say about the idea of the Jeremiah passage that we all can learn.  I highly recommend the movie.

With all that said, it’s just interesting how, without knowing anything about the movie before watching it, it would fit right along with what I had been thinking about lately and how I had been impacted by the passage from the Bible I was.  They are connected for sure.

Now just today, as I have been contemplating further and attempting to send my roots deep into the water, I was reading in a men’s devotional about Uriah in 2 Samuel 11:8-13.  As David tried to lure him away from his duties to cover up his own sin, Uriah stood firm in knowing what his duties were. He was devoted to his men and to God, so he would not move, even when comfort was granted to him.  This speaks volumes to me, as I look to fully devote and consecrate my life to God (in a way, as the monks did, but also as Uriah did), and as I have doubted my call and have now been affirmed in it in many ways, I must stand my ground as Uriah did, even in the midst of being tempted with the comfort of a change of direction.  I know my duties, and I will not be thrown off.  This reminds me of another passage, Hebrews 12:1-3:

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

 ³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

My prayer today, for you and for me, is that our roots would go deep into the Living Water, and like a sturdy oak, withstand the droughts, heat waves, and storms of life, standing firm as Uriah did, and as Christ does, that we would do as the author of Hebrews urges us to do, keep focused on the main thing, which is Christ, as we fulfill the purposes for which we were created, and that we would recognize more and more God's purposes in the things of life, and not write them off as mere coincidence or random happenings in our lives.  

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Be blessed by His Presence today!