Did you ever ponder why certain things and events happen in your life? Have you ever thought about such things  coincidences or karma or the term "when the planets align"? Do things just occur happenstance? This blog post is to give you my perspective on this subject.

Today, our Sunday School teacher was talking about a time in her life when she was younger and had small children. She was driving home with all her children in the car and was rushing to get home because one of the children was getting sick. She lived in an area that her road was very twisty and windy. As she was rushing home and approaching one the "dead man curves", a huge flock of birds suddenly descended in front of her car. She had to stop completely. She was very upset at those birds, but realized that in that moment that her elderly neighbor backed into the road from her driveway without looking. If it weren't for those birds and her having to stop her car, she may have plowed into her neighbor causing severe injury or death to her neighbor, herself or her children. Was it a coincidence? Karma? Luck? Or something else?

Is it coincidence that a person travelling on a highway suddenly gets a strong impression to get off the highway immediately? They listen and obey only to find out that a tornado went right through the highway, and they could have been directly impacted by the tornado.

What about the widow of Zaraphath who gave her last morsel to the prophet Elijah , whom just happened to come into her life. Her telling conversation with him, 

 And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

The widow's son's life was spared because:
  • The Lord told Elijah to go to her house. He obeyed.
  • The woman let him in and gave of her last morsel that Elijah could eat.
  • The woman's meal barrel never emptied
  • The woman's son lived because of Elijah
Every one of these instances play out one episode in the lives of His children. Once again, was all of these occurrences just coincidence? I think not.

The story in the Old Testament about Joseph being sold into Egypt and the series of occurrences that transpired are inspiring. In this instance, Joseph declared that:

...God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. (Genesis 45:7-8)

With Joseph's declaration that it was The Lord that caused it all, it took all the coincidence, karma, or planets aligning out of the picture. I blogged before about how The Lord is in the Details of our Lives. I truly believe this; that nothing, I mean nothing is a coincidence, karma, or planets aligning. Another personal example:

Four years ago, I was living in Pennsylvania. Work was getting tougher and tougher to manage. My wife and I made the decision that we needed to move somewhere where work could be found. I have always loved Utah from when I visited there before. I found an opportunity in Utah and so, we moved away from family and friends to Utah. I still call it our leap of faith. As I have blogged before with my journey to becoming a member of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. As I have become involved with that wonderful organization, I found too many "coincidences" in all of this:
  • Was it coincidence that I come 2000+ miles and now sing with the choir?
  • Was it coincidence that a fellow choir member served part of her mission in our Stake in PA and although, I never had personal interaction with her while there, that we find all this out while here?
  • Is is just happenstance that a husband/wife team in the choir organization happen to be from PA and we share the same PA loves.
  • Is it karma that I am a missionary for The Lord, in a musical service calling even though I squandered, yes squandered my opportunity to be a missionary earlier in my days?
Think about everyday things that happen in our lives. Think about the people that come in and out of our lives. I believe that those things and people are placed there in our lives for a purpose. The purpose may not be readily apparent, nor may never be. The purpose may not even be about us, but may infact be us being placed there to help fulfill someone else's purpose,

The Lord places us in these places, sort of like a huge jigsaw puzzle to fill in missing pieces, and to make the overall picture easier to see. Only The Lord sees our big picture. He gives us these moments of discovery to help fill in other peoples jigsaw puzzles or our own as we progress on our journey.

If we live our lives with the knowledge that there are no such things as coincidences, karma, or otherwise, we will have that eternal perspective to guide our lives. Trials will come and go out of our lives, but with an eternal perspective we become better equipped to handle those triLs. As we are more in tune with the spirit, The Lord can better use us for His eternal purposes - to come into other peoples lives and be that person as an answer, or plea to Father in Heaven for an answer. We can become His literal guardian angels.

Like Joseph in Egypt, we cannot see what may unfold for our future. We may go through our own figurative prisons and trials even when we are absolutely doing what we believe The Lord would have us do. We, like Joseph, need to continue in patience, knowing that The Lord is very much in the details of our lives. We cannot see the Lord's purposes fully. We may not interpret dreams,  but through our callings, through our interactions with God's children, we can become instruments in His hands.



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