Synchronicity and Other Serendipitous Phenomenon

Listen: “Follow the Sun” by Xavier Rudd

I was recently listening to a lecture by Dr. Mark Vernon on Jungian approaches to change. One of the concepts he discussed was “synchronicity.” Carl G. Jung believed that one should pay attention to meaningful coincidences in order to bring important material of the unconscious mind to attention (similar to his perspective on dreams). He defined synchronicity in slightly different ways throughout his career, but the main idea is “meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved” (Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal by Roderick Main). According to Dr. Vernon, the more you pay attention the more this phenomenon seems to occur in one’s life.

I grew up around a dad who was and is a master at playing a game which I call “six degrees of separation.” Dad never called what he did by this name, but I gave it this name because it helped me understand what he does naturally. Dad is an extrovert. I have never seen him meet a stranger. If he is standing close to someone, even a stranger, he will typically engage them in a conversation. I call it “breaking the silence barrier.” We could be in another city or another country, standing in a restaurant lobby or on a fishing dock, and dad would strike up a conversation with someone. Within five minutes he would find out where the person grew up, what they did for a living, and most of the time he would discover some friend or acquaintance that they both had in common. No kidding. I’ve seen him do it in other countries. It makes the world seem small and interconnected.

In 2019, I returned to Kansas City from a 120 day stint in rehab in Georgia. My thirty-seven year marriage dissolved, and my forty year career as a pastor had come to a dramatic halt. I felt overwhelmed by a swirl of negative emotions like humiliation, shame, anger, fear, doubt, betrayal, and abandonment—like a man forsaken without a home. I decided to go to a recovery meeting. I wasn’t sure I belonged in a recovery meeting for substance and alcohol abuse primarily because I did not have a long history of substance or alcohol abuse. In fact, I had only combined alcohol with the use of prescription Xanax for a couple of years, and that was an attempt to deal with my insomnia. However, I knew I needed recovery from the emotional trauma of my crisis and the addictions threatening to capsize me permanently.

The first recovery meeting I attended in the evening had about a dozen people in attendance. Everyone sat in a circle. I was assessing the room and feeling uncomfortably out-of-place. My mind was racing with thoughts: “What am I doing here. I don’t belong here. This is not my home.” At the beginning of the meeting, everyone said the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Then the facilitator started reading from “The Big Book.” It’s basically the “Bible” for Twelve Step Recovery Groups all over the world. The facilitator said he was going to read a story about a successful partner in a well known accounting firm who thought he could think his way out of alcoholism. His name was Fred! (Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 39-43).

I was surprised, even shocked. I listened intently to the story of Fred. Not all the details applied to me, but I could relate to several aspects of the story—especially trying to think my way out of things. When it came around for my time to share, I introduced myself as Fred and told everyone that I could relate to much that was in the story. The facilitator of the group had never met me. He did not know my name. There are almost six hundred pages in the Big Book, and the facilitator just happened to read the only Fred story in the book. I decided I belonged and have been a part of the larger recovery community in Kansas City ever since that night.

I have always called these phenomenon “divine appointments.” Many of the stories told in the Bible are told in such a way as to heighten and magnify the drama and suspense of an unseen force moving behind the scenes. Think about the story of Joseph. Joseph was betrayed and left for dead by his brothers, but then a series of meaningful coincidences unfold which heighten the drama, both good and bad: a caravan, Potiphar’s house, a stint in prison, Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt, and finally, Joseph saves his whole family from the famine in a beautiful crescendo of redemption and grace. Or consider the story of Esther. This story in the Bible is interesting because God is never mentioned. It’s like God is at work in the shadows, in the serendipitous circumstances. The story is a series of bazaar coincidences that ultimately culminate in a courtesan prostitute (Esther) saving the nation of Israel. The most famous line from the book about Esther: “Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

For me, these phenomenon point to something greater than all of us. Like the concept of the butterfly effect in chaos theory, we are all interconnected on this “third rock from the sun” and small “synchronicities” can have significant and meaningful consequences if we lean into them with faith, hope, and love. As a friend of mine has said so well, “Small things done with great love can change the world” (Steve Sjogren). I love the sense of magic in that phrase, the magic we read about in children’s stories. We live on an enchanted planet. It’s brimming with life that is special and sacred. The opening verses of the Creation story in Genesis are poetic. It’s as though God sings creation into existence with rhythm and dance and poetry. Let’s pay attention, follow the sun/son, and participate in the wonder of it all.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021