“THIS IS WEIRD,” I said to myself again. I was driving out to Forks recently for a Sunday service, and as I crossed one of the many bridges over the Sol Duc River, a car was coming from the other direction and we crossed the bridge at the same time.
I’ve noticed this phenomena can happen not just when there is a lot of vacation traffic but in the middle of winter, too, when traffic is low.
This observation reminds me of a classic algebra problem involving two trains leaving at the same time from opposite ends of the track, but at different speeds, and you have to calculate when the two trains would meet.
A long time ago, my 13-year-old brain, my physicist dad and I had several “tutorials” on how to solve the equation, and it generally ended with a trainwreck!
I still muse that my bridge experience has more to it than a proof of an algebra problem.
Is there something I’m missing?
Mathematician Joseph Mazur doesn’t think so.
In his book, “Fluke,” he writes that coincidences like I’m talking about can all be explained by the laws of probability and large numbers.
Well, phooey.
But Carl Jung, the famous counterpoint psychiatrist to Sigmund Freud, doesn’t necessarily agree.
Jung wrote whole books about “synchronicities” like mine that exhibit “patterns of meaning that transcend traditional logic.”
More recently, Dr. Saul Levin, another psychiatrist, wrote an article in Psychology Today titled “Strange Coincidence: Serendipity or Synchronicity.”
He reports he is not alone in wondering if there wasn’t something more that contributes to improbable experiences.
Even astrophysicists and atheists wonder if something else isn’t afoot, he says.
I’m not suggesting that crossing a bridge at the same time another car is coming the other direction has hidden meaning, but I take it as metaphor (I love metaphors!) and allowance to wonder if some “coincidences” do mean something.
Right now, the prayer chain at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Forks is on fire, asking for prayer regarding serious health issues, some even life-and-death matters.
Why are we praying? Because it works, and I don’t mean every prayer is answered in the way we wanted or thought it would, but, like the old billboards posted, “Prayer changes things,” and sometimes it’s the one praying.
We are praying, too, because as Martin Luther confidently wrote, “No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can affect, except those who have learned it by experience. Whenever I have prayed earnestly, I have been heard and have obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but he always comes.”
Next time you are on a road trip, see for yourself if a vehicle out of the blue doesn’t cross a bridge the same time you do. It might be just a coincidence or maybe not. But test this out, too.
Give prayer a chance.
Answered or not in the way you thought you wanted, it’s a good thing to do.
As Martin Luther wrote, “God wants us to pray, and he wants to hear our prayers — not because we are worthy, but because he is merciful.”
Note to readers: Thank you for your responses to my question last month about what Jesus would name his RV when he comes back, but decides to minister to, and here are some suggestions: “Salvation on Wheels,” “Hope,” “Compassion,” “Salvation Will Travel,” “Holy Roller” and “Go in Peace.”
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Don Corson is an ordained deacon in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) and the winemaker for a local winery. He also is the minister for Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Forks. His email is ccwinemaker@gmail.com.
