Random Thoughts

I saw a commercial last night for a new show on Fox called (I think) The Finder.  It's about a guy who notices the connections between things, allowing him to find things that are lost and/or solve mysteries.  It's an interesting premise and one that illustrates an important truth.

I think that many folks today believe that much of what happens in the world is random.  In fact several years back we were encouraged to practice random acts of kindness.  The emphasis on randomness grows out of a world view that asserts that the universe happened by chance and everything since the beginning has just sort of happened- randomly or by chance.  We won't go into all of that right now, but suffice it to say that I find that very hard to believe.  As one of my Philosophy professors said (and he may have been quoting someone - I don't know): you could set a chimpanzee in front of a typewriter, and it would never type out Hamlet- or anything remotely resembling brilliance....

It's tempting to believe something to be random when we do not apprehend the cause.  If we could see the connections between events, we would better understand why certain things happen when and how they do.  Even a person who thinks he is practicing a random act of kindness likely chooses the recipient of his largess for reasons that are determined by events or individuals from his past.

On his new album Counting Stars, Andrew Peterson has a song entitled "Many Roads".  It's the perfect song to begin a concert with, assuring his listeners that many small decisions may have led them together so that they might hear a certain song or story.

One thing is clear: Christians understand that behind it all is the hand of a loving God who guides history and the lives of individuals toward a glorious end.  Even the events that appear to be random are full of meaning if we can but apprehend.  Perhaps in the new year, like The Finder, we'll become more adept at noticing connections.