Coincidence or God Incident

Surely some things are actually coincidence, but so often chance happenings carry the fingerprints of what may be more accurately referred to as a “God incident.” I know many of you reading this column will have experienced this before. Here’s an example from the past week to show what I mean.

The plan for our Youth group meeting this past Sunday was to have a “Destination Unknown” trip to help us better understand the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Destination Unknown trips are an idea we got from a book of the same name. You announce that you are going to an unknown place for the meeting, gather, climb into the van (and some other cars) to go to one or more places for activities connected to the lesson for the day. We have visited a funeral home, Wal-Mart, downtown St. Marys, and other destinations over time, all with a message tied to some activities at the unknown destination.

For the Good Samaritan, we planned to go to houses of some teens in the van and ask, “Who lives here?” Then point to the surrounding houses, asking who lives in those as well. Move on to another house, and so on for three or four houses. Then start going to houses of people who attend King of Peace, but whose house might not be known to anyone in the van. Once I said whose house it was, we still would not know who lived in the houses nearby. After a few of these, we planned to stop for snacks and read and discuss the parable, before moving to the second part of teaching on the parable.

That was the plan and we stuck to it. But along the way, we changed the route in order to meet up with two teens arriving late. We were on a road we hadn’t planned to drive down when we saw a truck with a badly flat tire and the female driver on the phone. I asked if the youth wanted to stop and help and unwittingly fitting right in to the lesson for the day, they said they did.

The woman affirmed that she very much wanted assistance. She went on to explain that her husband, who she was talking with by cell phone, was on duty at the naval base and could not come to help her and her kids for quite some time.

We got out and started to go over to change the tire and referring to the lettering on the church van she told her husband over the phone “The Episcopal Churches of Camden County are going to change the tire.”

We changed the flat and got her and the kids on the road to have the tire plugged. We continued on our rounds having been given the chance to serve as “Good Samaritans” while learning about the parable. It was impossible to see what happened as a coincidence. It felt almost like God was showing off. In reality, I think neither thing is true. God used our lesson on the Good Samaritan to both help us to learn and to get the family with the flat back on the road with minimal fuss. I find God is often economical like that, getting more out of a single incident than I can see possible.

By the way, part two of our lesson had the group travel to the ruins of a house that had burned to the ground. I told the group that while the houses we passed by looked great on the outside, the emotional and spiritual lives of some of the people who lived around us was more akin to the burned out ruins. Many people in our community are hurting and in need.

In the parable of the “Good Samaritan” we learn that while we may want to start with ourselves and ask, “Who is my neighbor?” God starts with the person in need and asks, “Who do I have in the area that can help?” Often we can be the answer to God's question if we are open to the persons who are hurting and in need that God puts along our path.

It would have been easy to assume that as the woman was on the cell phone, she had help on the way. I am embarrassed to admit that was my first thought. I wonder if I would have stopped to help if I didn’t have a youth group learning about The Good Samaritan. It did make more sense to stop and confirm whether she was OK. In fact, she did need help and we were the ones God had in the area for our sakes as much as hers.

But a truck with a flat tire is obvious. Are we passing right by other neighbors in need—whose emotional and spiritual lives are more akin to a burned out house? If we are open to the ways God creates an opening for us to help others, we will be able to reach out to those neighbors in need as well. No matter what the situation may look like at the time, it won’t be just a coincidence that we can share God’s love with those who are hurting or in need.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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