If we live our lives as spiritual beings having a temporary human experience, we become available for all manner of divine assignments. We step out of the world of random living and begin asking, "God, what are you doing here? How can I run you errands and advance your Kingdom today?"

The more I try to live that way, the more God seems to interrupt my normal life with connections that defy the test of randomness. On the plane to California a few months ago, I ran into my friend Isa Couvertier. She had just ministered in Atlanta, seeing hundreds give their lives to Christ. We caught up and prayed together.

On the plane to Denver last month, my son was seated four rows in front of me. Upon landing he yelled back to me, "Dad, this guy next to me was with you fifteen years ago when you started the Gateway." After leaving the plane, I talked to the man (Jamey Durham), learning that we had indeed been together in Mexico and that he is now a professor of film studies in Iowa.

Yesterday, hiking the Smoky Mountains with my family, I saw a familiar face approaching me on the trail. "Wade!" I exclaimed. "Seth!" He responded. Wade and Rachel had just left AIM Staff in Philadelphia this past year so he could finish up his degree at Bryan College. I walked with them to the bottom of the trail where we caught up and prayed together. It was great to connect with them.

You calculate the odds of these interactions. Out of 300 million people in America, I seem to bump into someone I know almost every time I'm out and about. What are the odds?

A person married to a rational, naturalistic world view, would be flummoxed by the extreme lack of randomness in the frequency of seemingly serendipitous encounters. For me it takes far more faith to believe in such a world. I wake up expecting divine appointments.