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Coincidence is a sign of God, author says |
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Written by Mark I. Pinsky, MCT
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Monday, 07 August 2006 |
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 For longtime ABC television executive SQuire Rushnell, there is no such thing as a coincidence.
In 1993, after nearly two decades with the network, Rushnell was trying out different topics as a motivational speaker. Invited to a small church in Upstate New York, he chose "Coincidence: Is it Evidence of a Grand Plan?" The audience loved it.
"After that, I felt I had a mission to write a book," he says, and the concept has since turned into four books.
Rushnell's latest is "When God Winks at You: How God Speaks Directly to You Through the Power of Coincidence.'' In it, he intersperses inspiring — and sometimes eerie — anecdotes with boxed Bible verses and inspirational quotes from people ranging from Helen Keller and philosopher Martin Buber to novelist Tom Clancy.
 Some incidents he recounts, involving celebrities and average people, can produce goose bumps. Such as a woman from the Midwest, attending a Sunday worship service at an Orange County, Calif., mega-church, who just happened to sit down next to the birth mother she was seeking. The mother was attending services for the first time — by coincidence.
Rushnell, 67, calls these encounters "godwinks."
"Every time you receive what some call a coincidence or an answered prayer, it's a direct and personal message of reassurance from God to you," he writes.
At ABC, Rushnell created such shows as ``Schoolhouse Rock!'' and the ABC "Afterschool Specials,'' two shows that earned 75 Emmys. He is also credited with the success of "Good Morning America.'' Rushnell's own early religious background was conventional — he attended a Baptist church in New York but did not consider himself particularly devout. However, when his son was born 22 years ago in cardiac arrest, and not expected to live, he knelt and prayed for his survival.
"I began to commit myself to God and to Jesus Christ as my personal savior," he recalls. The baby lived. Developmentally disabled, he resides in a group home today.
"At some time or another, we've wondered if God really hears us," Rushnell writes. "But when God winks, he's reaffirming that there is absolutely nothing about us that he does not know — our every hurt, our every desire. That, to me, is very comforting."
What about negative or tragic coincidences?
"I've never found any negative or tragic ones," he says, preferring to attribute such bad things to fate.
"Fate is something you can't do anything about," says. "Coincidence or godwinks are the signposts of reassurance."
Or, as he puts it in his book, "Making sense out of senseless things is one of the tasks we are all called on to perform from time to time."
"There is a mighty force out there, bigger than all of us, watching over us, directing our lives," he writes. "God validates His presence in our lives through small, extraordinary events."
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Mark Pinsky:
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