Calling and Coincidence

It seems that for the most part, off the top of my head, their are three types of calling that modern Christians speak of: a) The internal sense of calling b) The general calling, as in, this is just what the bible says that we should do c) The coincidence calling, where everything falls in to place and seems like more than just a coincidence... If everything came together like that, it must be a sign from God.

Signs and having things fall in to place or in sync are certainly not unique to Christianity. I've rambled on this blog before about my limited knowledge of Carl Jung's idea of Syncronicities, in 70's new age pop culture there was the (in my opinion very poorly written and annoying) book Celestine Prophecy, and lets face it, nearly every religious group has ancient texts of some sort where magical things happen or life comes together in a fantastic way. It leaves us to wonder if the Calling of Coincidence is only for the Christian.

Have you ever had a calling of coincidence that didn't come to fruition? Nearing the end of my bible college degree, I went and talked to a local representative for Youth for Christ because I was looking in to different places that I might work for a while. I ended up telling him about another plan that I had been thinking over. I had been considering becoming a Katimavik leader (having been a participant several years earlier). I talked to him and we prayed about it and then I went across the street to the Tim Horton's to write in my journal a bit. While I was sitting in the Tim Hortons, the first Katimavik van that I had seen since participating over 5 years earlier drove right past the window. I was so excited and was sure that it was a sign from God.

The thing about it all was that after doing several phone interviews and two different full day group interviews, I didn't get a job with Katimavik.

What did end up happening was that someone from church who I had only known for a short time gave me an old car and then someone else from my church said that he had been praying about a job for me and a local homeless shelter had come in to his mind and then I got a job at that homeless shelter where I drove a lot of the homeless men around in the car that I had been given and tried to help them with finding housing. I've moved on from that job to other work now after doing it for three years.
Now, I'm happily married and I'm glad that I didn't become a Katimavik project leader because I wouldn't be where I am right now. But what a strange thing life can be, hey?

I don't know if I can imagine God saying, "Okay, this is what we are going to do... no, wait! I have a better idea". Maybe, he would?!? It's strange to think of change in calling like that.. or maybe it's not... or maybe it has to do with prayer.

The Bible tells us that God hears the prayers of righteous people:
(from the message version)
James 5:16
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
Proverbs 15:29
God keeps his distance from the wicked;
he closely attends to the prayers of God-loyal people.

It's fairly common practice for Christians to get other Christians to pray for important things in their lives. This can be a community building activity, but it also might be that it just takes the right person to pray. When Jesus walked the earth, lots of people wanted him to heal the sick or pray for people because they saw that he was able to do these things effectively.

Could it be that someone had prayed for me to become a Katimavik leader and then a more righteous person had prayed for something even better?
I wonder if God just decides to do things on his own, there are bible stories where he negotiates with people and we are taught that prayer is very important. Maybe God prefers to work in consultation with the community.