Turning the World Upside Down

Passage: Acts 17:1-9

Do you ever wonder why things happen in your life?  Why did this happen and not that?  Why were we born here and not there?  Why did we marry this girl and not that girl, this guy and not that guy?  Why am I in this job and not that?  Why am I in this church and not another?  Why does some stuff happen and not other stuff?

I find myself asking this question each week as I come to preach a text.  Lord, why this text, why now, who is it for, what are you doing in our midst?

I saw an article this week with the title, “Let Go of the Myth that Everything Happens for a Reason.”  I was immediately struck how there are countless souls around us who live their lives without any sense that there is any greater purpose or meaning in their lives.

They are the people about whom Henry David Thoreau said, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

If there is no God then everything is random, fate, chance, luck, an accident.  And when you come to that conclusion then everything is meaningless.  And meaninglessness leads to despair.

But if there is a God then not a sparrow falls to the ground and not a hair falls from our head without the knowledge and purpose of God.  Our God is a God of reasons and purposes.

I am aware of events that happen throughout my week when it just so happens I do something or go somewhere or make a decision or a visit someone or whatever and it just so happens to be the perfect moment or amazing timing.  In every coincidence I see the fingerprint of God.