No Coincidences

I love the Bible verse at the top of this page because it speaks to how personal God is. He is watching over me. I find that quite comforting. And I know it’s true because I’ve seen too many amazing things happen in my life that can’t be written off as mere coincidence. For example …

Whenever I go to a big league baseball game, I’m always a little nervous if my seat is in foul-ball range. I was a decent first baseman back in the day, but I’m just not sure I could catch a blistering line drive with my bare hands. A few summers ago I went to an Arizona Diamondbacks game in Phoenix. I had a great seat two rows from the field in right-field foul territory. Before the game started, I offered up a simple little prayer: “Lord, please protect me from any hard-hit foul balls.” Then the game began and I sat back and enjoyed myself without incident for four-and-a-half innings.

As the D-backs got ready to bat in the bottom of the fifth, I got up and went to the concession stand. When I returned, the dude sitting two seats down from me leaned over the empty seat between us and said, “You just missed a foul ball. It probably would have hit you in the face.” He said Arizona outfielder Shawn Green had hit a scorcher off the aisle steps that bounded directly over my unoccupied seat.

Remembering my prayer, I was speechless. And thankful. I thought of Psalm 121: 7-8 – “The Lord will keep you from all harm – He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” It was as though God was saying, "Yes, that was Me looking out for you.”

I’m thinking a lot about this passage now because I’m newly unemployed. I found out last week my job has been eliminated, another casualty among thousands in our wounded economy. I'm standing at a crossroads and I’m not quite sure where to go. But I’m OK with it – the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psalm 24:1), and that includes includes my dwindling finances. I am certain God has a purpose for me. I just need wisdom to be sure I correctly discern His call whenever He reveals it.

On Sunday I visited a church in Nashville, Tennessee. As I was driving there, I heard a classic old hymn on the radio, Be Thou My Vision:

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Olde English syntax aside, that tune expressed my own heart’s cry in a time of uncertainty. After arriving at church, I heard the song yet again in the prelude. Then the worship team led another song that couldn’t have been more appropriate: Lord, I Don’t Know What to Do. The song answered its own question: Lift up my hands and praise Him.

I needed to hear these words. It was no coincidence that I did.