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Random is Connection, and in turn, Connection is Random: What Does That Say For Evangelical Theology?

Random is Connection, and in turn, Connection is Random: What Does That Say For Evangelical Theology?

Last updated on: August 27, 2016 at 11:05 am by John O'Keefe

Random is Connection, and in turn, Connection is Random: What Does That Say For Evangelical Theology? 2016-08-27T11:05:11-05:00 John O'Keefe

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Not long ago I was sitting around with a group of friends trying to figure out the possibilities for the day – the possibilities seemed endless. After an hour or so, nothing truly came to the surface, we did figure out that in the climate of the times we could just sit and do nothing. So, we decided to do nothing. Besides, nothing is cool and cool is well, after all, cool.

In the realm of the nothing we were doing, we did, or at least I did, noticed that while we were actually doing nothing, we were actually doing something. This situation seemed to escape most of the others because they were trapped in the thought of doing “nothing.” Nevertheless, this “nothingness” is not nothing, because nothingness is somethingness. When I came to understand that, it caused some interesting thoughts, random thoughts, thoughts that are not truly connected, but in reality are truly connected – which brought to mind another interesting fact – if nothingness is truly “somethingness,” it seemed to me that “randomness” was truly “order.” Just like when we concentrate on the nothing, we miss the something, when we live in the random we miss the order. The problem with random thought is that we seldom see the connection – but if we look close we will see they are there, the connections [I know, but I tend to be a Quantum Physics geek]. The idea that random is not connective, to me, is silly – random is totally connective. So you see, random is connection, and in turn, connection is random – which is an interesting way of seeing the chaotic world.

I tend to think thoughts I don’t remember thinking before, and without writing them down I’ll never think again. My mind works in synoptic random pops of chemicals based on limited brain power, so I could’ve thought them before – just not recorded them in the “record section” of my brain.

I like random thought, I find comfort in the fact that want is seen as random, and defined as random, is in fact, over time – connective and not random at all – which again, is very cool – and believe it or not, very worship filled, very “teachable.” I think I like random so much because it means we are unable to define the divine – we try, but in reality we’re not even close. When we think we got it, BAM something happens that causes us to rethink our definition.

For me, thinking in random thought allows me to see connections that I would otherwise miss. For me, and in my randomness, I see Divine working that way, random. What we see, or think of, as random and non-connective happenings are in fact connective. It is just that we may not see the connection in the short term. Heck, we may never see the connection at all. But you see, in randomness we can find “connectiveness” and for me that’s exciting [bet you thought I was going to write “cool” again].

Think about this – it was in our sitting around doing our “nothing/somthing” that I saw a “randomness/connection” idea come to life – causing me to wonder; are they connected? I mean, is “nothingness and randomness” connected at some level? I wonder. And if they are, what does that say for evangelical theology? I recently had a discussion with a person who took offence with the idea that God created randomly – for him, and his theological base, randomness was “evil” and God could not create out of evil. That got me thinking; if God always was, always was – from no point did God not exists – then before God created, God was around – right? Therefore, before God created thing were random and God lived in the randomness – so, how can “randomness be evil?” I wonder. If God uses “random,” and creates “connection”?

One thing for sure, randomness is very interesting stuff – and it sure can twist a mind. Here’s a thing to think about, was my sitting with my friends as “random” as it seemed? Could it truly be a connection that was missed until that moment? But in it all, randomness is exciting, and a good point to start a lesson.

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