. :: Purpose-Driven Consequences

It’s A God Thing(?)

[Reader’s Warning: Clark is fiercely gripped by a theology that does not think God orchestrates every moment and movement of our lives – technically it’s called Circle-Not-Dot-ism. Clark also likes to test ideas against what scripture says. Sometimes those ideas pan out. More often than not they don’t. This is a discussion of his latest test.]

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” says Suzy Christian, “I think God knew that this would happen” (that x circumstance would coincide with y circumstance).

I like the thought. I like people who see God infused in everything. I like people who thank God for a sunrise, a Spring flower, for paint drying… well, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s stick with coincidences, but for people who don’t “believe” in coincidences, let’s refine the term. These events into which some people infuse such importance, let’s call them Purpose-Driven Coincidences (PDC). That’s the essence isn’t it? Here we are with this little debris of time and action and we find God moving upon the face of it – with purpose. I think that’s fair. Let’s examine PDCs.

Basically, we’re talking about miracles, aren’t we? Minor miracles at that, but still, a miracle can be defined as God overtaking the normal course of events to cause something to happen that advances His ultimate purpose. No matter the size, when God intervenes in the natural course of human life, that’s a miracle. Whether someone gets sick, gets healed, gets fed, gets eaten (or not) – that’s a miracle. If the earth stops in its rotation around the sun, a fig tree withers and dies in a day, a sea parts, a wall falls, a poor widow finds wealth, plagues start, plagues stop… those are miracles.

What’s our position on miracles? There are only about 30 recorded in the New Testament, but I hear of many times that even in a small gathering of Christians who begin to discuss God acting in their life. What are we to expect in the way of miracles? Let’s ask Jesus.

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;
Matthew 12:38-39 NASB

37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.
38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
Mark 4:37-40 NIV

Are you getting the drift? Jesus was generally reluctant to do miracles. Read the Gospels and track carefully what Jesus does and says before a miracle. On the whole, He was reluctant to do miracles. Take a good look at the wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1-11). Jesus got pretty snarky with His own mother when she asked Him to do a miracle. To be sure, the end result was a miracle and many believed, but we have to be careful there. Some Christians are like Pavlov’s dogs when it comes to miracles, we salivate at the thought of them, but if they don’t continue as expected, what do we do then?

Here’s the final word on miracles in the Gospels:

29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:29-31 NIV

Jesus specifically blessed those who believe without seeing miracles. I’m not going to let that pass lightly. I hope you don’t.

“But Clark, we’re not talking about parting the Red Sea or Lazarus rising form the dead. We’re talking about my step-sister running into a former neighbor at WalMart who just happens to work for Acme Corp which just happens to be hiring in the field in which her laid-off husband specializes. That wasn’t just a coincidence. It was a God thing!” (PDC sighting?)

Well, now that’s a good point. Here’s a random moment in time and space that apparently has the hand of God all over it. Personally, I like to test out miracles by going upstream – backwards up the sequence of events that led to the PDC in the first place. Was it a miracle that her husband got laid off (and why did he get laid off – budget cutbacks or laziness)? Why didn’t the husband call the former neighbor in a broad effort of networking? I don’t know where to draw the line on what God is orchestrating. Why didn’t God just work divinely to keep hubby in his job and save everyone the emotional stress of job loss and work re-assignment? Seriously, if God is manipulating the events of life, can’t He manage a little better to just keep the storms at bay? And this strikes at the core of my problem with PDCs. God only seems to show up in passing moments, corners of life. Where is the “big picture” God?

So, that leads us to an important piece of Bible study. Where does God show up? I’m about to share some examples from scripture that “prove” my point. Actually, they just illustrate it. There are many examples of God blowing up stuff, making a lot of noise, and generally wreaking havoc – Purpose-Driven Calamities. I’m not trying to ignore or dismiss those things, but we’re pretty familiar with God in High Definition, Dolby Surround Sound. I think we have missed the God who whispers a lot – the Lo-Def side of God.

Let me give these examples and then we’ll see if there is a point available somewhere. In fact, since I stumbled upon this metaphor, let me contrast God in Hi-Def and Lo-Def. I beg of you, open your Bible and get to know both sides of God.

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – Genesis 19:24-25 gives us the famous “hell fire and brimstone” raining out of the Hi-Def hand of God. But in the preceding chapter Abraham speaks quietly with a Lo-Def Lord negotiating mercy on his kinfolk in the infamous town of Sodom. Read Genesis 18 very carefully. God didn’t seem in any hurry to “do a miracle” (and you have to admit, that was a miracle!) He was perfectly reluctant to destroy S&G.

Release of Israelites from Egypt – Oh my, this one ends up huge! But start in Exodus 5 and read through to 15. Plagues of every kind culminating in calamitous death and then the parting of the Red Sea. Hollywood agrees, this is Hi-Def stuff and Charlton Heston witnessed it all. But before the sea, before the plagues we have a confused shepherd standing at a burning bush in the desert. God says to Moses, “tell Pharaoh to let my people go.” Down right polite if you ask me and very Lo-Def. Nine times Moses asks Pharaoh to let the people go and warns of trouble, but there’s always a promise that God won’t bring that Hi-Def trouble if Pharaoh will listen to a Lo-Def request. Again, I think God was very patient, downright reluctant to fire the big guns.

God and Elijah – Elijah was a faithful servant of God, but on the run and with his life in peril, he seemed to despair of God’s care and attention. God gave him a Hi-Def experience that he’ll never forget. I Kings 19:11-12 tells of Elijah watching rock-breaking tornado, a terrible earthquake, and devastating fire – all Hi-Def stuff but God wasn’t in any of that. He was in “a still small voice” that came to Elijah after it all. How profound. How clear. The Lo-Def God does not prefer to speak to us by calamity or even by moving moments of our lives around like pieces on a chess board. He’s love to talk to us in “a still small voice”.

Jonah and the Whale – Who can forget the terrifying Hi-Def story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale (or actually “a big fish”). I won’t even go down one of those dark blue tubes at a water park – the idea of being swallowed by an icky sticky fish completely grosses me out. Back to our hero… Before Jonah is swallowed by a whale, I mean a big fish, he’s on a ship that God has sent a storm to tear apart beam from beam (Jonah 1:4). Again, lot’s of cool Hi-Def for the children’s Sunday school class. But if we took the time to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start) we’d see simply that the Lo-Def “word of the Lord came unto Jonah”. How straight-forward. Jonah did not obey the still small voice of God and, as a result, he wound up in a Hi-Def, this-is-so-not-a-coincidence, God moment scenario that has been retold for millennia.

In each of these great stories, God seems to prefer a quiet conversation over a Sly Stallone action sequence. Do you agree? So isn’t that what PDCs are? Just quiet moments touched by the hand of God? Yes, indeed, but they fail the Still-Small-Voice Test (SSVT). They are still God acting sovereignly to intervene in the affairs of man – I just don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone describe a PDC as “a whisper in the ear”. “God sighting” is more commonly the term used.

Let’s catch up to where we are so far. Jesus was reluctant to do miracles and God shows up quietly as often as He shows up like a bull in a china shop. I’m not denying the possibility of an alternate view; this is just the position at which I’ve arrived. And the larger point of this is that God wants us to give Him our attention much more than He wants to grab our attention. Can you agree with that?

Now, let me grant a few things. We should celebrate God working in the details of our lives. I’ve been out of work for months at a time. I don’t think it’s a small thing to find work when you need it and if it comes as a result of a conversation in the produce aisle at WalMart, I for one am all for it and I’ll give God the glory for it. Period. I also believe that God has worked soverignly in the body of one of my children to spontaneously resolve a situation which was days away from surgery. That was a miracle and I believe God did it. Period. I also know that two of my four sons have significant asthma complicated by allergies. God’s not doing anything about that. Does He alone know how much I can handle and He lops off the big stuff, but stiffs me with the low grade health problems? You see this is where my view of God is really tested. I’m compelled to consider what He doesn’t do just as much as what He does tinker with.

And that brings me back to PDCs. Everyday I sit anxiously at traffic lights. Three or four lanes from every direction vying for the same real estate. I’ve heard people praise the Lord ahwmighty when they saw someone at the intersection they had “just been thinking about” – and “it wasn’t a coincidence”. Do we think the hand of God Himself conspired time and tides to bring both of you there, then. But there are often dozens and dozens of people at any intersection, at rush hour hundreds. What about the rest of them. Does God have no purpose in you being at the intersection unless you recognize someone? Does God not gift you with the privilege of saying a quick prayer for every driver and passenger you see whether or not you recognize them? And now I’m coming closer to the heart of my point – are we looking for purpose-driven coincidences or purpose-fulfilling opportunities. [And please, if you ever see me at an intersection, pray for me that I don’t blow an emotional gasket getting through traffic. I’m not a peaceful driver.]

Let me try a song on you. It is a dear, dear song to me. It sums up this point (and it sums up the way I feel about my wife).

The Luckiest by Ben Folds

I don't get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

What if I'd been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a white sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Next door there's an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you that I know we belong
That I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

Now be careful, I don’t “believe” in luck anymore than I “believe” in coincidences. Luck has been described as the intersection of preparation and opportunity. That’s what I believe in. And that’s what I mean when I said I hold to a Circle, not a Dot, theology. I don’t believe that God has only one place for me to be, one thing for me to do, one person to fall madly in love with [song verse two], and that He has to shuffle every instance of history and future to bring me to that DOT. I firmly believe in the CIRCLE – that I am to pursue God with all my soul, heart, mind, and body; that I’m to seek first the kingdom of heaven and that all things will work out for HIS GOOD. (Romans 8:28 does NOT say that all things work out for our good.) If I’m living in that circle I have a world of good promises – whispered by a still small voice – that I can cling to when the storms come. I do not have a promise the storms won’t come. And whether I ever experience a miracle, my God loves me and has worked to save me from my sin. That’s what I cling to. Therefore, if I am pursuing the “things of God”, I can go forward with confidence.

Absurdity Warning (part 1): I once dated a girl whose father (a real Dot kind of guy) would pray over which head of cabbage to select at the grocery story (probably waiting for a chance encounter with someone whose husband was out of work). Am I ridiculing his faith and humility before God? No. I’m perplexed at his sense of who God is. I’m perplexed that he thought God only had blessings in store for him if he picked the right cabbage. It strikes me as superstitious. And can you imagine how long it took him to do a week’s grocery shopping? Personally, I don’t eat cabbage, but I buy the biggest head of lettuce I can find and move on out of people’s way. But there’s more. I am deeply committed to being a good steward of the time and treasures God blesses me. When I enter a grocery store, I feel strongly that I have prayed up on the matter and that I have humbly submitted myself to God’s providence. I look for the best value – highest quality at the best price. I don’t pray over the cabbages, but I most definitely consider my trip through the grocery store an act of worship and stewardship. I hope you do, too.

“I like people who thank God… for paint drying.” Yup, back in paragraph 3 I actually said that. Have you ever described a boring experience as similar to “watching paint dry”? Maybe you’ve used the term “watching grass grow”. Let me ask you something. Have you ever actually watched paint dry or grass grow? I think we’re being terribly unkind to paint and to grass for being so dismissive of their quiet, Lo-Def labors. I think when we speak derisively of processes like that we confess that we are prone to Hi-Def encounters with God, as well.

“But Clark, there’s a world of difference between God speaking and paint drying / grass growing!”

Is there? I was not aware of that. In fact, I thought Jesus uses something as simple as grass growing to illustrate to me how much God cares for me (Matthew 6:28-30). I thought Jesus was telling me that just as we can rely upon to grass to grow without having to master over it, so too, we can count on God to bless us with having to ask Him for it. In fact, Jesus continues in Matthew 6:31-34 to tell us not to be anxious about which cabbage to eat. That’s what I get from it. So long as I am seeking Him and the things that actually belong in His kingdom, I’ll be alright.

Absurdity Warning (part 2): But “watching paint dry”? Surely that’s not a biblical principle that we have to be wary of, is it? Hmmm. Pigmenting and protecting preparations are thousands of years old. In fact, Noah is told to paint the ark “inside and out” with water-proofing material. Aren’t you glad his paint dried? But seriously, why do we dismiss the fascination of drying paint? Because it is a Lo-Def experience in a world addicted to Hi-Def noise. I’m quite upset about this. Do you realize the magnificent brain it has taken and the years of experimenting and perfecting it has taken to bring us to the point that our beloved NASCAR driver, Jeff Gordon, can be sponsored by a paint company? Do you realize what decay would befall our world if we didn’t have paint protecting our structures, machinery, toys, etc? Do you realize how grim your home would look, “inside and out”, were it not for something as puny and forgettable as paint? I’m dead serious when I say that to dismiss the marvel of drying paint is to dismiss one of the greatest blessings God has poured into the lap of mankind. Dead serious!

When we praise God for Hi-Def intrusions into our world, we don’t diminish God, we diminish ourselves. If you revel in God sightings and God moments, Purpose-Driven Coincidences and you don’t take 30 minutes every week or so to watch the grass grow, you are really missing out on what God is actually doing in your world. Let’s not brag about God getting up on a kitchen chair and banging pots to get your attention. I’m not even saying He doesn’t do that – He’s sure done just that in my life a time or two… or twenty. But when we begin to find God in the ordinary, in the routine, in the mundane, the Lo-Def, that’s when – I believe – that we really begin to have a daily walk of faith, a praying-without-ceasing kind of relationship with God that He truly craves.

Thus ends the rant.

…oh, and the next time you see a “WET PAINT” sign, cross out the WET and write DRYING. And then underneath that write, “THANK GOD”. And have yourself a wonderful day.