No Such Thing as Random

For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever, Amen. (Romans 11:36)

I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as random happenings. You may disagree with me and that’s absolutely fine but I’ve begun to believe that every event, situation and person provides an opportunity to learn and grow in our faith.

A few weekends ago there were more than a dozen young women in and out of our home. They were all here to say hello to a lovely teenager from Maryland. The girls met each other while participating in a Franciscan LEAD Conference (leadership, evangelization, and discipleship) held at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio last July.

Lexi was my daughter Shannon’s “randomly selected” roommate at the week-long conference. Lexi and Shannon share a deep connection of prayer and faith. They give all-new meaning to the term “soul sisters”. It doesn’t seem very random to me that a group of girls from Michigan gathered to laugh and pray with a friend from Maryland who they met in Ohio. Hmm…seems bigger than random to me!

I shiver when I think of all the times we dismiss the deliberate work of God as random, coincidence, karma, or fate. I think our loving Father is much more personal and spectacular than that!

I remember the night I met my husband. He was taking my roommate out to dinner and I answered the door and chatted with him while he waited for her to finish getting ready. Several weeks later I sat down in a meeting with a room full of strangers and guess who was seated right across the table from me…yup…my husband. I don’t think that was random.

I also remember the cold snowy winter evening I was coming home from the orthodontist with three kids and a trunk full of groceries and I got a flat tire. The wind chill that evening was more than 10 below zero and after digging the spare tire out from under all the groceries, I couldn’t get the frozen lug nuts off to change the tire. As I knelt in the snow frozen and frustrated, a gentleman stopped and invited me to drive my car to the farm right up the road. It turns out he owned a tire shop and he had all the equipment necessary to change my tire in his heated shop. Random… I think not!

I really think Christ dwells among us and works through us. When I think about my days here on earth, I realize every single thing is meant to draw me closer to Him. The sooner I realize that and lift my heart to Him in thanksgiving for the million ways a week He works in my life, the more exciting it be comes to see His works. When I recognize things I might have once called random, as His handiwork, I feel loved and protected and blessed. Those are great things to feel for sure!

A Seed To Plant: Take some time this week to write down all the things that seem like “random” events. At the end of the week, lift you list to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to show how He was working purposefully in each of those situations.