Friday, July 13, 2012

chance chance

Do you believe in coincidence? 

I don't.

I think I used to, once upon a time. 

At the risk of sounding like a religious freak, I don't see coincidences anymore.  I see God at work.

For example:

I have an online friend that I met through the message boards for "Lois & Clark" fanfic.  (What a bizarre way to start, right?  Just wait!)

This friend has written fanfic in the past, but she is also a Christian fiction writer.

(Now, my feelings about Christian fiction are pretty much the same as my feelings about most "Christian" things.  If something is labeled "Christian," more often than not, I'm steering away from it.  My whole philosophy on this is better suited to a separate post.  Suffice it to say, I can't handle most Christian fiction.)

As a Christian fiction writer, this friend is naturally plugged into the Christian fiction world, which means she very helpfully posts links on Facebook to free Christian fiction books for Kindle whenever she comes across them.  This happens about once a week.  I always check out the links and read the reviews to see if the book is potentially interesting/well-written/could stand on its own outside the label "Christian fiction."  I have come across some good books this way.  I have also come across enough books (that I feel are worth downloading) to last me for quite some time because, you know, I have loads of free time to spend reading.

Incidentally, as we've been hanging out this summer, waiting for our house to sell, I've found myself with more free time than I've had since BC (before children).  What do you do in the dead of summer in a house where a significant percentage of your stuff is packed up and in which you're trying to avoid anything that makes a mess?  Why, you read, of course!

So I busted out my Kindle, and started perusing the number of books I had downloaded for free.  I read one series.  I read a few more books here and there.  I read the one free book I had from my very favorite Christian author, who is leaps and bounds beyond any other I've read.  Then I decided to just start with the oldest books I had downloaded.  (I like systems so much that sometimes I'd rather impose a system upon myself that dictates behavior than have to make decisions.  Screwy, I know.)

The oldest book in my list was Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar.  I have no idea how long ago I downloaded this, but I know it has been several months.  (By my count, I'm up to about 4 "coincidences.")

Stop what you're doing and go read that book.  Seriously.  Go.  Don't even finish this blog post. 

Okay, I'll keep writing as long as you promise to go get that book as soon as you're done here.

Ms. Afshar has a blog.  Today, her post included this:


Most of us Christians know God reasonably well in our heads. We know the facts. We know the rules. We know the stories. We know the claims and assertions. But deep down inside, we haven’t quite caught up to that knowledge yet. We haven’t grasped in our core being that God is for us; He is on our side, and because of who He is, this is enough to make even a fallen world safe. We are unable to truly rest in the love of God. We struggle to live out of trust in the Father’s faithfulness. We slip, we strive, we wrestle with fear and control because at the level of the kherev we are not yet wholly God’s.

("Kherev" is a Hebrew word that means, in my paraphrase, the core of you, your very soul.)

Have you ever felt like this?  Struggling without understand why?  Without knowing how to make it better?  

How can we help each other to know God better, to know God like this?

What could happen in our worlds if we were so secure and so rooted in our knowledge of God?

Back to "coincidences:"

Pearl in the Sand is the story (largely fictionalized, though based in the Biblical account) of Rahab.  

Rahab was the mother of Boaz.

Boaz married Ruth.  Jesus comes from the line of Ruth and Rahab.

The women's Bible study at church (which I wasn't going to be part of because there's no point in getting involved in something if we're just going to be moving) is studying Ruth.

Ruth and Rahab have some interesting similarities.  Would Boaz have treated Ruth the way he did if not for the background of his mother and the way God worked in her life?  I'm guessing it wasn't a coincidence.

Feel free to blame me if you find yourself awake in the middle of the night to finish Pearl in the Sand.  But then tell me about so we can discuss it!

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