Not long ago, I was at a research conference with students and faculty members from the region. At a mentoring breakfast, I sat with several students and a “more seasoned” faculty member from another institution.
A student asked the two of us to share about our academic training and how we ended up in academia.
The other faculty member proceeded to tell a beautiful story about his career path. His story included mailing off hand-written letters to potential graduate school supervisors (today we just email) and driving cross country to meet them to see if the match was a good one (today we just Zoom).
At the end of his story, he wrapped up with a quiet, thoughtful pause and said, in almost a whisper, as if he was talking to himself more than to us at the table, “I guess I have serendipity to thank for all of it.”
That phrase he used—revealing his gratitude to serendipity– has stuck with me, not for its insightfulness, but for its emptiness. How sad to have a beautiful story and no one to thank for it.
Serendipity—defined by the Oxford dictionary as “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way”—stands in stark contrast to Sovereignty—defined by the same dictionary as “supreme power or authority.”
There are many examples of God’s sovereignty in Scripture. God used difficult circumstances in the life of Joseph, involving deception and evil from his own brothers, so that the nation of Israel is later preserved from famine (Genesis 37-41). Daniel is exiled to a foreign land in an amazingly elaborate plan by God himself to bring glory to the name of the One True God (Daniel 1-12).
Other examples of God’s sovereignty include a baby for Sarah, though much later in her life than she would have planned (Genesis 21), and a baby for Mary (Luke 1, Matthew 1), though much earlier in her life than she intended. Both of these babies were planned by God for his purposes and in his timing, particularly the latter one, to save for himself a great nation (I Peter 2:9).
These biblical stories tell of God’s sovereignty, not serendipity. Our stories are also tales of God’s sovereignty.
So next time, when asked how I became a professor, I pray the Lord will give me courage to boldly explain how God provided opportunities I never expected and his hand can be clearly seen in all of it. Or when someone in the grocery store tells me that my hands are full (I have five kids), may I simply respond that “God has been good to me.”
If we are in Christ, we have a beautiful story God has given us. The difference between our stories, as Christians, and the stories of the world (even the lovely ones like my professor friend’s), is that we know who to thank for the goodness given to us.
May we not let the goodness of God in our lives go to waste.
Mallory Marshall
Kinesiology
Samford University