The subject of luck is all around right now. St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and the creative writing club I’m part of gave a topic for our next assignment as something having to to do with luck.
I get it. We love to blame something when things don’t go our way:
“That shot should have went in – that was unlucky!”
“He has the worst luck in women.”
And we like to hope for things:
“Maybe I’ll get lucky and pass the test even though I didn’t study for it.”
“Maybe I’ll get lucky and it won’t rain that day.” (Side note: Our church is having a Mental Health Hope Walk on May 17th, so if you’d say a quick prayer that it won’t rain that day, I’d greatly appreciate it!)
If we look in the Bible, at first glance, people may seem to be lucky – or not lucky.
When we read 2 Chronicles 18:33, it may seem that King Ahab was unlucky because in a battle, he was struck and killed by a random arrow shot by a random archer. The archer wasn’t aiming for the king, but killed him anyway. If we read the rest of the chapter, however, we see that God’s hand was all over that battle. King Ahab had ordered someone else (Jehoshaphat – if you want to say that five times fast) to wear the royal robes, but God lead their enemies away from him and had a random archer kill a very wicked king.
Or consider Rahab. It might seem unlucky at first that two spies made it past the city walls and ended up in her house (Joshua 2). But then we see that she becomes part of the lineage of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). Because she obeyed God and the spies, her life and the lives of her family were spared. It had nothing to do with lucky, it was all God.
We can look at Paul in the New Testament. He was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned – all kinds of things. It seems like he had a very unlucky life! (You can read a summary in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29). However, all of these things were part of God’s plan. God told Ananias before he went to talk to Paul, “For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name,” (Acts 9:16, ESV).
Sometimes good things happen to us and we feel lucky.
Sometimes bad things happen and we feel unlucky.
The one thing we need to remember is that God is always in control. Nothing happens outside of His design.
Proverbs 16:33 (ESV) says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”
When I was in college, I had a Cognitive Science professor who showed us the Boids flocking simulation. (Feel free to look it up on You Tube – it’s interesting!) He said this computer simulation proved there was no God because even the computer grouped in community and would avoid obstacles. He said the ‘birds’ would keep this up forever without interference. (He and I tried to talk, but I often didn’t understand enough of what he said to know how to talk to him.)
I agree this simulation would show what earth would look like if God had created the world and then stepped back and left things to luck.
But that’s not what God does. God is still deeply involved in every aspect of our lives. He cares deeply even about the birds (or Boids?).
Ephesians 1:11 (ESV) says, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having be predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.”
Psalm 115:3 (ESV) says, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”
God is still alive and active in and on this earth.
So, friend, be encouraged. If you are feeling very unlucky right now, trust that God is working out something for your good, even if you can’t imagine what that might be.
I won’t pretend to know why God does He does sometimes, but I know I have been through some crazy hard times, and God has always brought me through it. It’s made me stronger. It’s helped me depend on Him. It’s strengthened my faith. Sometimes, it prepares me for something else yet to come.
And yeah, sometimes I just don’t know why He lets me go through some things.
But God loves us. He loves YOU. He has good things in store for you (maybe on Earth, maybe on Heaven). Trust Him, not luck.