{"id":1144,"date":"2016-05-18T12:09:55","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T12:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=1144"},"modified":"2016-07-29T18:59:44","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T18:59:44","slug":"do-you-believe-in-coincidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/do-you-believe-in-coincidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you believe in &#8216;coincidence&#8217;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.spiritdaily.com\/logoinside.gif\" alt=\"Logo\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Coincidence is a funny thing. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/spiritdaily.com\/contactus.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Let us know yours<\/a><\/span>. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Sometimes it occurs in a very meaningful way. Other times, you can&#8217;t make sense of it and ask only: why?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>We all experience it. You may have met your spouse through a &#8220;coincidence.&#8221; Or landed the job of a lifetime that way. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>There are major, life-changing coincidences, and then there are those little things, like going down a highway to church on a Sunday and finding yourself behind a jeep with a kayak atop and then eight hours later using another road and finding yourself behind the same vehicle &#8212; the same jeep, the same kayak, heading in a different direction (west instead of south). Or going to Italy and running into a cousin.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What are the &#8220;odds&#8221;?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>And since the odds so often seem to weigh heavily against something being just an occurrence: when that happens, we wonder\u00a0<em>why?\u00a0<\/em>What&#8217;s the mission or the message? What is the meaning? Perhaps simply to pray for that person in front of us a second time?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>The jeep could be what they call &#8220;happenstance.&#8221; Throw the dice, and every so often they will come up snake eyes, or whatever they call it. Peculiar things happen in the flow of life. There are certain cycles and crossroads. Granted.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">But often you find yourself<\/span> scratching your head. What if you never answer the phone after five but one day hearing it ringing decide to pick it up and it ends up being someone you marry? Or that the same person, after getting off the phone, opens Scripture to the passage that says, &#8220;What God has joined together, let no man put asunder&#8221; (having to do with marriage) and in fact they end up married? Doesn&#8217;t it seem like angels are behind it? Doesn&#8217;t it seem, while we&#8217;re on the subject, like angels must coordinate\u00a0<em>many<\/em> aspects of life?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>There are heavy-duty &#8220;coincidences.&#8221; You may have heard how both John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln shared a number of peculiar things (and some not so peculiar) in common. You can find one such list <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lincoln%E2%80%93Kennedy_coincidences_urban_legend\">here<\/a><\/span>. An analysis of it <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.snopes.com\/history\/american\/lincoln-kennedy.asp\">here<\/a><\/span>. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.\u00a0Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Both successors were named Johnson.\u00a0Both Johnsons were born in \u201808. John Wilkes\u00a0Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were both assassinated before their trials.\u00a0Lincoln was shot in Ford\u2019s Theater.\u00a0Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln, made by Ford.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Now, that last one is a bit of a stretch; we can go too far with such things.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>But how often do we see them in our lives? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Call it synchronicity:<\/span> mysteries of the cosmos.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>9\/11 &#8212; the greatest police and fire emergency in modern history &#8212; is composed of the same numeric configuration as the emergency (911) phone number.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>The universe, a philosopher named Haldane once said, is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we\u00a0<em>can\u00a0<\/em> imagine. Perhaps there is no such thing as coincidence and everything is woven in a way we can&#8217;t see. In fact, that&#8217;s the belief here.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>There are those who refer to &#8220;Godincidence.&#8221; <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>For example, in our mailbag, after famous nun <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/church\/remembrances-of-a-mystic-named-angelica\" target=\"_blank\">Mother Angelica<\/a><\/span> died, was this:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>&#8220;Last night, my husband and I were driving back from Boston and received an email about the passing of Mother Angelica and we began praying the Divine Mercy chaplet for the soul of Mother Angelica and this truck just appeared before us.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/mailba1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1145 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/mailba1.jpg\" alt=\"mailba1\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Seems a bit <em>too<\/em> coincidental to us.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>And recall the words of Einstein: &#8220;God does not play with dice.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><em>[resources:<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/store.spiritdaily.com\/product-p\/mhb-104.htm\">The Spirits Around Us<\/a><\/span> and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/store.spiritdaily.com\/SearchResults.asp?Search=The+God+of+miracles&amp;Submit=GO\">The God of Miracles<\/a><\/span>]<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/michael.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1066\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1066 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/michael.jpg\" alt=\"michael\" width=\"80\" height=\"136\" \/><\/a><em><strong>[<a href=\"http:\/\/www.spiritdaily.com\/\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Return to www.spiritdaily.com<\/span>]<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><em><strong>Are you in San Francisco? Join us at our retreat <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/store.spiritdaily.com\/product-p\/ret-14.htm\" target=\"_blank\">here\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"gsp_post_data\" \r\n\t            data-post_type=\"post\" \r\n\t            data-cat=\"commentary\" \r\n\t            data-modified=\"120\"\r\n\t            data-created=\"1463573395\"\r\n\t            data-title=\"Do you believe in &#8216;coincidence&#8217;?\" \r\n\t            data-home=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coincidence is a funny thing. Let us know yours. Sometimes it occurs in a very meaningful way. Other times, you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[202,65,201,198,199,133,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-1144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-commentary","7":"tag-albert-einstein-quote","8":"tag-coincidence","9":"tag-haldane","10":"tag-kennedy","11":"tag-lincoln","12":"tag-mother-angelica","13":"tag-synchronicity","14":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}