Life takes you by surprise sometimes.  One never knows how the past may intersect with the present tense.  My view is that fewer things are coincidence than we imagine.  A follower of Jesus might wonder why things happen at one point then find the answer even years later.  God doesn't always work on our timetable.  This is yet another reason to absorb as much of His will in your current situation so He may direct your paths.  People may come through your world with no immediate explanation.  Circumstance may change without warning that are only a prelude for better things ahead.  These are things you cannot catalog or organize in any given moment.  Remaining sensitive to God's direction often leads you to new understanding down the road.  Our initial question of why must lead to a what in terms of finding God's purpose.

I say all of this because of recent developments.  You may or may not know of my attempt to earn my doctoral degree back in the 90's.  Sure seems like a long time ago now.  Everything was completed except for my final project.  At least my grades do reflect that every seminar earned an A on my final report.  Why it never came to pass is due to a combination of several issues.  There was a move from that ministry setting.  There was a change in style due to a new administration.  My youngest also ended up being diagnosed as autistic.  But one of the great things about my effort was spending time with the pastor of a larger church who served as an adviser.  I cannot speak for him but my time was enjoyable at the least.  Maybe there were some lessons learned during that time but most of my education was just getting out to see how things were done elsewhere.  I lost track of him following that move and for several years after that.  Last year began a new time of catching up in ways that were surprising.

He ended up working at Baylor University which is where my daughter now goes to college.  I saw him during our Baptist state convention last year.  Chemo was just behind me so I had to introduce myself to him.  We got to catch up along with my finding out information on my daughter's future home.  Let me make a long story much shorter.  Our paths crossed a few times more over the last year.  My most recent visit was at our high school playoff game down in Waco.  What no one knew that night was a coming announcement that he would be nominated to take the job as Executive Director of our state convention.  I impressed my daughter after that by calling him to offer congratulations.  My many years of doing this job brought a few notables of our denomination across my path.  This is the first time for me to have more than the slightest background on such a person.  His job will not be easy nor filled with many thanks should it all come to pass.  But he can do a great job if people get out of his way.

Our denomination is a mess.  It's been this way for four decades now.  We fought lots of enemies among ourselves.  First we waged war on a national level with a clear winner and loser.  Then my state became another battleground with new rules but the same outcome.  You need to understand how my heritage is locked into being a Southern Baptist.  I can and will not apologize for that.  Many of my friends over the years fell among the various camps in the conflict.  I personally went to meetings on either side of our disagreements.  No matter what one group claims victory it is my opinion that everyone lost.  My friend will be trying to lead a state divided by years of antagonism.  He has my support regardless.  I know him even though much of our friendship is in the past.  I will not claim to be close friends but there is a friendship.  Who could know back then how a connection would come full circle?   It was good to catch up when the time came.  Now my hope is he can be free to lead our state into better days.

Bro. Trey