I have been hearing the word "lucky" a lot lately. It rolls off the tongue as easy as "peanuts, cracker jacks, ice cold beer" flows from the mouth of a ballgame vendor. Luck seems to come in all shapes and sizes:
- Lucky in love
- I'm a lucky guy
- Cross your fingers for good luck
- Lucky break
- Take luck!
- Unlucky (soccer)
- This is my lucky night
"Lucky" is a word so imbedded in our cultural vocabulary that we pick it up and use it without even knowing what it really means. So what is luck?
The MacMillan Dictionary defines luck as "success that you have by chance and not because of anything that you do" or "an influence that seems to make things, especially good things, happen to people for no particular reason."[1]
Subscribing to luck is to believe one lives in a universe governed by blind chance, an impersonal force, or utterly random events. This is not the message of the Word of God. The Bible tells us that:
- It is God who raises up one king and puts down another (Daniel 4:17, 25, 32).
- It is God who determines the periods and boundaries for our lives (Acts 17:22-27).
- It is God who is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17).
- It is God who made and preserves the heavens, the earth, the seas, and all that it is in them (Nehemiah 9:6).
- It is God whose eye is on the insignificant sparrow (Matthew 10:29).
- It is God who orders the steps of the good man (Psalm 37:23-24).
- It is God who works everything together for our good (Romans 8:28).
- It is God who works out everything according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11).
I think we insult God when we attribute his blessings to luck. We ignore his wisdom when we chalk up difficulties and disappointments to a "freak occurrence", random chance, or some unseen force?
You are not a soul left to drift on the random swells of a capricious sea. You are not a forgotten traveler caught in a cosmic traffic jam. God is in control!
Yes, I know this raises another set of questions both serious (the Aurora Colorado shooting) and lighthearted (is it okay to have a "potluck" dinner). Alas . . . one post is but one post.
You can call yourself blessed by God, but don't call yourself lucky. There's no such thing as luck.
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[1] "Luck" in The MacMillan Dictionary. www.macmillandictionar.com. Accessed August 13, 2012.