Hello Great Family,

Have you ever found something you weren't looking for? I have on occasion found money in the dryer after running a load of laundry. I have found a gift card I forgot I had and it still had money on it. I recently found a Home Depot gift card in my wallet that I don't remember putting there. There is a name for that, "serendipity". Serendipity is defined in the dictionary as the occurrence of valuable, pleasant, or fortunate events by chance. Often described as a "happy accident," it typically involves stumbling upon something wonderful or useful when you weren't actively looking for it.

Being a child of God has brought many serendipitous moments into my life. However, I do not believe they came by chance. With God, everything is by providence not coincidence. I have experienced many "happy accidents" that were not accidents at all but instead were direct acts of God's divine intervention.

That brings me to my recent medical situation I asked for prayed about a few weeks ago. When I was recovering in the hospital after the cardiac event in November, a gastroenterologist doctor appeared and introduced herself. Needless to say, I was confused because I now needed heart doctors not gut doctors. She then explained that in all the scans they took of my heart and veins, they found some spots on my pancreas. The earth stopped spinning for a second. I thought my heart was the concern but apparently now they were telling me that I might have something concerning in my pancreas. However, due to the fact that I just had three stents put in my body and was on blood thinners, we would have to wait to determine what those "spots" actually were. That was six months ago. That's a lot of time for the brain to go places it shouldn't. While I was trusting in God, I was also losing sleep. Sometimes our faith gets tangled up with fear.

Finally, last Tuesday, they did an endoscopy ultrasound and think that I have two cysts on my pancreas but do not believe they are cancerous. I will now have the same procedure every year to keep an eye on those spots to make sure nothing changes. Thank you for praying!

It did not appear to be serendipitous at first. Not really a "happy accident". More like insult on top of injury. But now, I find it amazing that God knew I had spots and used an unrelated issue to make everyone aware to be keeping an eye on them. I was blissfully ignorant of any concern, but now I am grateful that I am in God's hands and I can trust Him with whatever comes next. I'm sure it will be serendipitous!

Hope to see you Sunday at 10am for the intro to our new summer sermon series, "Giants Must Fall". Also, I am really looking forward to leading worship with an awesome team of servants. Come worship our serendipitous God with us!

God Bless,
P.D. (Psalm 139)