Serendipity

When you don't believe in luck, chance or coincidence you're typically left with a lot of churchy words to describe the unexpected neat stuff that happens in your life. And those words never really seem to capture it. "Blessing", "Divine Appointment", "A God Thing" etc. All a little clunky.

The fact is that I do believe in chance and coincidence (not so much in luck) but there is really no better word for this stuff than "Serendipity." That way you can ascribe your good fortune to whoever you want... you don't have to be presumptuous to be poetic.

I have encountered a few instances of serendipity this week. On Monday, I finally got to meet Ibiyinka Alao, a wonderful guy who had been friends with Phillip & Amy Scoggins for awhile, but had yet to bump into me. Ibiyinka is the art ambassador from Nigeria, and travels all over the world making presentations about his art and his faith. Just 5 months ago he got married to a former art student of Amy's, and they have settled down in Springfield.

Turns out Ibiyinka and his wife, Jessica, are looking for a church to call home. When he saw the Front Porch he was very intrigued. And when I asked him, he agreed to give his presentation at this Sunday evening's Merge gathering. That's serendipity of a divine order.

So that night I was able to make up a flyer for Merge to take with us to Drury for their Student Activities Fair on Tuesday. For this opportunity I have to give props to Matt & Andrea Battaglia, a recent addition to The Core family, who both work at Drury. Anyway, Christina and I set up our display for their Fair, and immediately tons of Drury students were asking us about The Core and the Front Porch. Welcome to the 60 Drury students who are new to The Core! We're looking forward to seeing you around. Serendipity again.

Finally, Mik told me yesterday about how he was putzing around the Front Porch, trying to finish up a few things, and this guy named Zach walked in asking about becoming a bartender. Apparently there's a sign on Ernie Biggs' door saying "Bartenders Wanted, please use next door". What they meant was to please use the back door. But due to the miscommunication, Zach walked into the FroPo looking for a job. Although Mik didn't have one to offer him, the two of them did sit down and talk for about an hour and a half. Then Zack offered to help him move all the appliances into the now-finished coffee bar. I don't know if he ended up getting an interview at Ernie's, but we definitely expect to see him around from now on.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not crediting Serendipity for these things. I'm just saying that it's one of the ways God does things. There's comfort, there's testing, there's commanding, there's Serendipity.

It's important to recognize this, because whenever you try to do something really big, it's like discouragement is always hovering over your head. Consequently, when God intervenes with Serendipity, you pretty much have to get a tattoo so you don't forget about it by the time you're drowning again.