Debunking Luck

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day.  Where else but America can a saint and former missionary be celebrated with beer, tales of pots of gold, fictional leprechauns, and wearing green?  Our culture has an uncanny way of making virtually every holiday about eating and drinking.

The drinking and eating aside, I’m fascinated by the whole idea of “luck of the Irish.”  I know there are people who actually put stock in the idea that everything that happens to and for them is just luck. Some call it dumb luck, and others say they’ve been “kissed with luck” or cursed.  Either way, their existence is based on nothing but this idea of either being lucky or unlucky. 

We’ve all known people personally or from afar that seem to have it all together, to get all the breaks, or that everything they touch turns to gold.  Honestly, we’ve probably hated that person just a little bit.  Unless you are that person, then you have no idea why you’re so despised. 

We’ve also known people who seem to enjoy more than their share of hardships. We don’t envy these people and count ourselves “lucky” that we’re not them.  The term “down on their luck” seems to be tattooed on the life stories of some folks. 

I don’t believe in luck.  I fall into the camp of good happens and bad happens-to everyone.  Some seem to have more than one or the other but just like everything else, it’s seasonal.  The pendulum swings and no one is impervious to where it tends to tilt for any given day, month, or year. 

This is why Cinderella stories happen during basketball season, why athletes who have never been hurt get injured their senior year, why actors perfect for the part miss a line and lose a role, why tires get nails in them, and why tree branches fall on cars.  Conversely, heads-up pennies don’t change our life.  Broken mirrors don’t mean we’re doomed for the next seven years.  Rubbing a rabbit’s foot, avoiding ladders, and staying away from black cats won’t insure a smooth path either.  

We can’t avoid bad luck just like we can’t conger up good luck. Why? Luck is something we try to grasp and have just as easy a time as catching air. Luck doesn’t exist, but good and bad times certainly do. 

Instead of finding solace in luck we can find peace in hope.  God never promises us good times, but He does promise that He will work all things together in our lives for good.
Romans 8:28- “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

As a side note…
Despite what the saying ‘luck of the Irish’ implies, it actually means the opposite.  The Irish people have not had the greatest history of actually enjoying a lot of good.  Because of famines, prejudices in their own country and in the early days of America, the term originally referred to their bad luck.  Even John Lennon sang about it – “If you had the luck of the Irish/You'd be sorry and wish you were dead /You should have the luck of the Irish /And you'd wish you were English instead!”  

I’m not wishing to be Irish or English and I don’t have to wish for that elusive good luck.  I can, however, be content knowing that the Lord controls outcomes, and He doesn’t use luck.