Coincidence? I think NOT!

Katergazomai is exactly what this next post it about. This is definitely one of those issues that I just had to let God energeo in me. {Have no idea what I'm talking about? Check out my post "Why Is Your Blog Called Katergazomai?"}

So, I've been dealing with the issue of God's sovereignty vs. coincidences for several months now. I've talked with my friends, mentors, and everyone. While what everyone said is what in my head I believed.. it just didn't' seem good enough. I really wanted to believe and know without a doubt and truly believe that God was in control of everything rather than just have several coincidences.

I believe the people that I spoke with prayed for me and I even prayed about it... and WOW! God really showed himself off to me and these people. God has been really active in this situation and I can't help but to share! I have 3 incidences that I want to tell you about:

Incident #1:

My first experience was kind of a joke between my high school girls minister and myself. I went to talk to her about this issue. I let her know my concerns and the things I was thinking about. We were in her living room and the light behind me started to flicker and annoy both of us. I think Tracie saw it as a teaching moment and said, "So, like the lamp? Like, is God in control of that flickering?" As soon as she said that "POP!" the lamp began to smoke. We quickly unplugged the lamp and started laughing about how "God must have heard us talking about Him and wanted to prove it". While that was kind of funny and we both laughed about it.. I still wasn't even close to being convinced that it was God. Coincidence? Most likely.

Incident #2:

My second experience was really a neat event, period. My friend Allison and I had talked about my concern with coincidences before one night after out Old Testament class. Well, we decided to go out for a bite to eat because she had just gotten back from a mission trip to the DR and I wanted to hear all about it. We arrived at the restaurant and were quickly seated. The waitress came by and got our drink orders and left. Allison and I talked about the trip and different things. The server came back with our drinks and some yummy bread and left. I decided that instead of dipping my bread in the cinnamon butter like I would usually do when I'm with my family, that I would be considerate of Allison and ask for our silverware so I could use the knife. Before I could even ask the server, Allison was dipping her bread in the cinnamon butter. (You know you are good friends when you don't even care. Ha!) The server came back and got our orders and left again. By this time Allison and I both noticed that she was having a bit of a rough day. She just looked tired and like she had been on her feet all day; however, we just brushed it off. After a little while, and after the bread and cinnamon butter was all gone, out server finally came out with our meals.. but alas! No silverware! So, I asked the server politely if we could get some. The server left and I said to Allison, "I think we should pray with her when she gets back". Now- I must admit that I NEVER EVER do anything like that. Well, I have never done it before. So, it had to have been the Holy Spirit that said it because it came out of left field! The server came back.. we asked her if we could pray with her while we blessed our meal.. we did.. and she left. It was so WEIRD! Allison was really excited because she said, "that is the kind of thing that we wanted to bring back from the DR with us". We thought it was neat to pray for someone and then we remember the silverware. If we had gotten our silverware in the beginning of the meal, I probably would have never asked to pray for her. It's only because she left to grab our silverware that the Holy Spirit spoke to us. Coincidence, hmmm... maybe?

Incident #3:

My second experience happened last week and was really the final straw in this case. Since moving to Alpharetta, I have been thinking about church "shopping". I really value the establishment of the local church so I decided that the weekend after Easter would really be my first chance to go to churches and visit. Saturday night I had decided to attend a certain church. When I woke up Sunday morning, I just didn't really feel like going there so I found two other churches that I'd go check out. The worship service at one church started at 10:45 and the other church's started at 11. So, I decided to go to the church that started at 10:45 first and if things seemed weird, I would go to the 11 church instead. I have no idea what I was thinking about the 10:45 church by "if something was weird" but that was the plan. So, I set off on my adventure to visit a church. I drove to the church that started at 10:45 and there were hardly any cars in the parking lot. I figured that since it was Spring Break, that maybe that was the issue. Well, that was "weird" enough of me to go to the 11 church instead. I drove over to that church and got there a little early. I went in and found a seat. They have the offering plates in the back so I took my communication "first time guest" card to the back and stuck it in the bowl. When I went to go sit back in my seat there was a girl standing near my chair looking at the stuff in the seat, like the bulletin and such. I went back and sat down. She looked at me and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Let me put this back for your friend." and I informed her that no one was sitting there. She asked if it was my first time and I said yes. So she asked if she could sit next to me. (That was a total me move, so i knew I liked her already.) We began to talk about moving and what brought me to Alpharetta. Then she asked me where I work and I told her. When I said where I worked she asked, "Do you work in Church Planting department" and I said, "Well, that's creepy" and laughed. She told me that she literally had an email from HR about mentoring me at work. I laughed out loud. Even before I was offered the position my supervisor had been telling me about a mentor that i would work with. Turns out.. this was her! We laughed about it and thought how funny it was to meet without anyone introducing us. Well, Someone did. ;) What's EVEN better about the story.. is that she works in the children's department every other Sunday... so if I would have went to the 10:45 church and came to the 11 one the next Sunday.. I would have missed her! Coincidence? I think NOT!

God has really been energeo with me lately. It a HUGE example of how he is romancing me and proving things to me about himself and his character. This is a great example of Philippians 2:12-13. Now, you- go katergazomai! I want to hear your stories!