The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon?

Otherwise known as the “frequency illusion” or “recency illusion,” the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon occurs when the thing you’ve just seen, noticed, or heard about suddenly crops up everywhere. For instance, you look up an unfamiliar word in the dictionary, then the same word begins to appear in every news article, book, or magazine you read. Or you’re shopping for a car and someone recommends a particular model to you. Now the car you’d never noticed before seems to be at every traffic light and parking lot you come to.

Most everyone has experienced something like this before, some of us many times. And while I think this explanation often has merit, in many instances, I think another explanation warrants consideration. We call it confirmation.

As Pam and I began considering and pursuing the launch of this ministry with more vigor, as we began telling the story of qavah with more intentionality, God began confirming it in our spirits.

It started when we told our small group from church that we were considering forming a new ministry birthed from our own unpleasant experience. Through it, God had given us a burden, and we felt that it was time to act on that burden. We were planning to call it Qavah Ministries.

A couple of days later, Bryan, our small group leader, sent me a link to a podcast from Bethel Church in California. And while the pastor never actually used the Hebrew word, he did a great job articulating the biblical concept of waiting. (It’s worth a listen when you have the time.)

Then, a few days later, I was reading a weekly email from Terry Storch, a friend of a friend. In that week’s installment, he recommended several reading plans available on YouVersion, one of them from The Bible Project. Having just finished a reading plan that took me through the entire Bible during the year, I checked out his recommendation, The one he recommended was 90 days long, so I found a shorter one, only four days, about the Advent season. The devotional part of the plan was a short video. Here’s the video from day number two.

The following Sunday, less than a week after Bryan’s email, our pastor’s sermon focused on, you guessed it, the biblical concept of waiting.

I love it when God uses ordinary circumstances and occurrences to confirm in our spirits what we likely already know in our hearts. In this case, I was wrestling with the both the timing and the name.

And with a sort of wink, I sensed that God was clarifying both. The time is now; and the qavah, the expectant wait we’ve been experiencing, is finally culminating.

I hope you’ll come along!