God's Providence, Coincidence, or What?

[TK]

My stepdaughter related a story recently that the pastor of her church told, which went something like this:

The pastor was having some type of work done at his house. It must not have been major because the guy was only going to charge $60.00. Although the pastor felt the work was somewhat shoddy, he sensed the Lord telling him to pay the guy $80.00, and did so. As soon as he handed the guy the check for $80, he received a phone call from his secretary, who advised him that an anonymous couple from the church had just given him a gift of $1100 for a family vacation he had planned. The pastor's point in telling the story was that when we are generous and faithful in giving, God will often bless us in amazing ways.

My wife and I discussed this and had something of a disagreement. My point was that the anonymous gift of $1100 was already set into motion w/o regard to the pastor's decision to pay the workman more than he deserved. In other words, I argued that it could not be said that the pastor's generosity CAUSED the anonymous couple to give their gift. Her point was that while that may be true, God orchestrated the events and the timing so that the pastor would be encouraged and blessed by the phone call that arrived just after he handed over the check.

What do you all think of events like this?

TK

[steve]

It reminds me of several experiences I have had over the years. One of the most memorable (which I have told before) was when I received a gift for $2,000 on a Saturday and my son broke his arm—costing $2000—the next day. It could be said to be a coincidence, but it is the only time in my life that I can remember getting a personal gift that size, and it was timed just right. Of course, if we say that God deliberately timed it to coincide with the broken arm, we would have to say that God foresaw (or caused) the broken arm, and had the donor send the gift several days earlier (the gift came from out of state) to cover it.

[Murf]

I'm sure there are plenty of these examples but from my view. TK's story sounds like coincidence and Steve's story sounds like providence. I don't see why we can't have both.

tim

[Paidion]

I believe in God's involvement in such matters and do not regard all of them as co-incidences.

This may seem contradictory to some of you, because of my disbelief for example, in God either "forseeing in advance" (in the sense of seeing the event as taking place as if He were watching a movie of the event prior to it taking place" ) or God causing the event of Steve's son breaking his arm. However, I do believe God understands chains of causation in a way which far exceed our understanding of the same. Thus He frequently expects certain events to take place on the basis of His knowledge of these causal chains.

I'd like to share with you an example which I, myself, experienced as a young man in my late teens. I was working as a section man on for the Canadian National Railway in a remote location where there were no roads for auto travel. I deeply longed to attend a Youth for Christ meeting Friday evening, in a town about 40 miles away. The only way to get there was by train. There was a passenger train going through Friday morning, and so I asked the foreman to contact the C.N.R. with a request that I be excused from work that day. If my request were accepted, I would not be paid, of course, but I so coveted my attendance at that meeting, that I was willing to forgo my wages for that day. So the foreman made the request, but it was denied. I was greatly disappointed and disturbed in heart and mind, as I did my work that day. It seemed absolutely impossible for me to attend that meeting, for there was no other passenger train going through that day. Then I prayed, "Lord, I tried my best to find a way to that YFC meeting. I failed. If you want me to go to it, then you'll have to provide a way, impossible as it seems. I just put this in your hands. If you don't want me to go, I'll accept that, too." The moment I did this, my disappointment vanished, and I felt completely at ease, resting in my Lord.

Well, about 1 P.M., our foreman said, "Ah, let's take the rest of the day off!" He knew a freight train was going through about 1:30, and so he said he would flag it down, and we could take it and go into town. It may have been contrary to the C.N.R. expectations of him, but that's what he did. The freight train stopped as he flagged it down, and all four of us hopped into the engine room with the engineer and went to town. I was there in plenty of time to attend the YFC meeting that evening. I rejoiced! God's plan was so much superior to mine! Not only was I able to attend the meeting in plenty of time, but I got paid for the entire day!