About Me
In 1998, during my last semester in law school, I started a personal web page on AOL. Long before Facebook and other social media, it was a very basic design with simple information and links that I wanted to share with whomever stumbled across it. Over the next few years, I edited the pages to include new ideas and links while deleting some of the old ideas and broken links. My site moved from AOL to a user page on a smaller independent ISP and later to a new server with a new domain. It has undergone a number of design updates and transformations over the years. The page, as it currently is, is rarely updated any longer, but feel free to take a look.
One of the pages I added along the way is the story of my wife and I and how we found each other. Not coincidentally, I titled that page There are No Coincidences with God. It is my firm belief that every one of us experiences daily uncountable “non-coincidences” with God, but we often fail to recognize them.
My question(s) to you: What if there was no such thing as “coincidence” ? What if everything we experience is a part of God’s divine plan? I’m not talking about predestination where none of our decisions matter, but free will fully integrated into a divine plan. Would we look at our encounters and our personal choices differently? Maybe not… but maybe!
Many years ago, even after posting the story of my wife and I to my web site, I began to notice that these “non-coincidences” seemed to occur more frequently than I ever realized. That made me wonder if they were really happening more frequently, or if I was simply more finely tuned in to them. But I also found that after a few days (or sometimes even a few short hours) I could only remember the more obvious and profound “non-coincidences.” I’d lost track of many prior “non-coincidences” and that bothered me. Years ago, I used to journal my thoughts and ideas on an infrequent and irregular basis, so I decided to start up that practice again, but with a specific focus upon my “non-coincidence” experiences.
So I started up a new Word file on my computer and began to jot down some of my experiences. After a number of months I had about ten or so entries in my journal, but it wasn’t until late October of 2008 that I realized two things after getting a phone call from a friend. First, I still was not recording all of my experiences. Second, and more importantly, even with those recorded experiences — for the most part — I was not sharing them with anyone else.
I then asked myself what good was I doing in tracking my own experiences with “non-coincidences” if I didn’t share them with others? Sure, I added a single There are No Coincidences with God idea to my web site and encouraged others to share their experiences with me, but the real power to the idea that There are No Coincidences with God is in the ongoing reinforcement and personal witness of that idea. It is not a one time experience never to be witnessed again. Read Mt 5:14-16; Mk 4:21; Lk 11:33.
So that was when I decided to make this idea my first foray into true blogging. I don’t claim to have any special knowledge, insight, or credentials and I am not necessarily looking to debate the theology or skepticism of those who question the existence of God. All I can say is that I have personally witnessed the love and presence of God and I absolutely believe that There are No Coincidences with God. Through the blog, I want to share these experiences with others and maybe inspire others to be on the conscious lookout for their own similar experiences.
Some of these instances will be more profound and significant than others, but none are insignificant. Some of my stories will be more personal than others and may contain comments or thoughts that make them seem childish or incomprehensible to anyone who hasn’t shared my personal experience. An “inside joke” means nothing to the person on the outside. That perspective won’t make the encounter any less valid for me, so I choose to journal those moments as well. Where possible, I will try to explain those moments the best that I can.
I have no idea how often I will add new entries. I guess that will depend upon how observant and in tune I am to the daily graces that I receive. But I welcome any reflection or comments and invite you to share your own experiences which tell you in your heart that There are No Coincidences with God (some people refer to these events as “God-Incidences”). You don’t have to share your God-Incidences here, but share them with your families and friends and those who may be looking for inspiration or a reason to keep the faith when everything or everyone around them is telling them not to. We can be that light for them, but not if we put it under a bushel basket.
Praise God!