Something There Is that Loves a Coincidence

The title of this blog is one that I’ve pondered for many moons. I’ve filled in the details, written the text, provided examples, argued for its veracity many times, but always in my head. It’s never made it to paper or electronically charged bits or bytes (unless you count the ones in my head.) Until today. This appears to be as good a day as any to finally let the thoughts swimming around in my head spill out and fill up a page in my blog.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve had the privilege of working with my cousin these past many days. I've been employing him for a short time and it may continue for a while. He has spent this summer at the Anoka County work house, where they have a special program that allows residents to look for employment outside of the place.

About a year and a half ago he started a year-long program at MN Teen Challenge, a local drug and alcohol treatment program. Breaking some rules got him kicked out, and eventually landed him at the work house. But it looks very promising that he’ll be back at Teen Challenge this fall. He’s very much looking forward to that.

Last Friday we were picking up materials at Drywall Supply in Plymouth. It was the middle of the day and the place was dead, only about two other customers in the place. But lo and behold one of those customers was the head of maintenance at Teen Challenge. He spotted my cousin and they both shared how thrilled they were to see each other. The director was able to give my cousin some encouragement and update him on all the ongoing projects at the “new” building. It seemed like a divine appointment to keep my cousin looking forward to what lies ahead.

Now this morning we were ordering sheetrock at another building materials place in another city and who do we run into but the assistant head of maintenance at Teen Challenge, Willie. This was the guy my cousin was directly responsible to this past year, a towering man that provided much spiritual guidance during my cousin's initial stay at TC. Willie also gave my cousin a huge dose of encouragement to keep pressing on and then got both of us excited about what’s going on at the new place.

The Anoka County work house can be a depressing place, but Someone is making sure that my cousin keeps his eyes on the goal which lies ahead. In less than a few months he’ll be back in the program which has dramatically changed his life and given him a new lease on life. And when he gets there, I know there will be two fine devoted servants of Christ to welcome him back.