James 24:7

In the moment that the eunuch looked down to see Philip and hear him ask if he understood what he was reading, the eunuch could not have known the "back story" behind Philip's actions.  (i.e. that Philip was "Spirited" down to that road {Acts 8:26 ff.} and "Spirited" to go over and stand next to that chariot. {8:29})

I have no way of knowing what the eunuch thought about how it was that this Jewish fellow came upon him on a desert road and asked that question at just the moment that he read that particular text from Isaiah.   I do not know how first century Ethiopians thought about such things.

Let's say that after hearing Philip's question everyone and everything (except for the eunuch) freezes.  The eunuch turns to a group of representatives from the 20th/21st century.  He asks, "What am I to make of what just happened?"

One member of the group says: "I know that seemed like a meaningful event but it really isn't.  These things are called "coincidences" but are really nothing more than happenstance, nothing more than sheer accidents.  You may want it to mean something but it really doesn't. There really are no coincidences."

A second member of the group says: "Well you are right about one thing...'there are no coincidences'.  However, that is not because there are literally "no coincidences" .  Rather, everything that happens happens according to a larger plan, a larger purpose.  Because of this underlying purpose, there really are no accidents.  We may not understand their meaning but we can at least rest assured that they are not just purely accidental."

A third member of the group says:  "Well, you are right about one thing...there is an order of things that underlies our everyday cause and effect consciousness.  That something is called the 'collective unconscious' and it is at work all the time making connections between events that appear only connected by accident.  We need to pay attention to those seemingly accidental connections because they are meaningful; they speak to us of our own psychological needs."

A fourth member of the group says: "Well, you are right about one thing.  These so-called 'coincidences' do speak to our underlying needs.  We need for the world to make sense and, if possible, to fill us with a sense of awe lest we fall into the abyss of meaninglessness and despair."

A fifth member of the group says: "Well, you are right about one thing.  These events do speak to an underlying need but it is not this mystical sense of awe of which you speak.  Rather, it is our need explain the world in terms of cause and effect.  Our brains are wired in such a way that we naturally seek the cause of various effects.  Our brains are set up to think A leads to B leads to C.  So, even when there is no apparent connection between events we will naturally create one to satisfy our brain's desire to link up causes with effects.  If we can't see one right away, we will appeal to God or something spooky to explain why what we just experienced makes sense."

A sixth members of the group says: "No, no, no.  This is the way the universe is organized.  'When the student is ready, the teacher appears.'"

A seventh says, "Hmmm..there may be something to that but I would say that we attract these events into our lives; that the universe provides what the focused mind intends for itself."

An eighth member of the group says: "Look.. all of this is interesting but the truth is that given the span of a life, the number of seconds in a lifetime, and the number of people in the world there is a high statistical probability that every so often an event  that appears 'coincidental' will happen.  If we knew more of the variables in this particular encounter (e.g. traffic rates on the desert road at particular times of the year) we could probably calculate the statistical likelihood of these events."

A tenth member of the group says, "I suspect the statistician is on to something.  I bet this eunuch here is a victim of selective attention...that perhaps he has seen more people on the desert road than he realizes and has even had more conversations in the past week than he can recall but because his mind is intent on understanding Isaiah, Philip's question just struck him as meaningful."

I wonder if the eunuch would feel "helped"????

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Today I had a conversation with a member of our worship team about whether we ought to use a particular song or whether the song was a bit "out there" for some in our congregation.  Later he wrote me to tell me an office worker had listened to the CD of songs the worship team will play this week.  She came back to him and said, "If you do that one song this week, I definitely want to come and hear it."

It was the song we had discussed this morning.

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Yesterday I emailed someone and told them that when I blogged I was sending thoughts out into Cyberia.  I congratulated myself for coining that word....clever boy.

Today, I picked a book in a book store and turned it over to read the blurb on the back...the blurb writer said of the author that his writing is helping us all to better understand life in "Cyberia."

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What does it all mean?  If anything.....

Shall we turn to the 10 by the chariot to help us understand?

:0)