Preparation & Serendipity

   Two readings, one thought:

   From Matthew 20:

   “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” (ESV)

   From Psalm 105:

   "he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave." (ESV)

   It seems as though God has prepared for things in the future, and His plans will not be thwarted. The Pharoah in Egypt did not even know God, but God was at work in his land, through the hand of Joseph. It was a round about trip, but lives were saved and a nation built through the series of events surrounding the famine in Egypt. God knew the future and prepared the way.

   In the narrative from Matthew, Jesus reminds his disciples, especially James and John, that things have been prepared in God's will, and these plans cannot be upset by anyone.

   I tend to rock along in my life without much deep thought about the future. It is often a case of "whatever will be, will be", and I don't dwell on it.

   But God has a prepared way for me, a way that He knows, and a way that He wants me to follow and be a part of. It is impossible for me to fathom His mind, since He knows what He wants me to do, and He knows what I will do, and He knows what He will do in that case also.

   So what is my responsibility in all of this? Do I just wait on the sidelines and see what happens or do I actively look for what I am supposed to do?

   There is a line by one of my favorite authors, Alexander Mccall Smith, in his little book, The Perils of Morning Coffee, which says "things done in error are best not left undone". This was his observation on the serendipity of mistakes, whereby one of his characters receives a invitation to coffee, generated by an obvious computer mistake, and decides that maybe nothing is ever done without some reason behind it. Then the whole plot proceeds from her response to that error.

   I often say that nothing happens in my life without a reason, and my responsibility is not to just treat it as fate, but to be alert for what God may be trying to tell me.

   It is easy for me to think on this when a Scripture brings it out, but to remember it as I live life each day, now that is hard.