What is Luck

What is luck?

Luck is a word that has featured a lot in discussions about the destruction brought by the flood and cyclone Yasi. It is said that those who have lost everything had bad-luck and those lost nothing had good-luck. Queensland will arise from the mud and rubble and rebuild the state because they are ‘Queenslanders’ and live in Australia which is the Lucky Country. Some who escaped drowning in the flood were lucky as they were able to hold onto a pole or climb into a tree. Whether or not your insurance company will pay for flood is a matter of luck.

As I listen to what people said about luck, I found myself asking, ‘What is luck?’ People used the word luck in three different ways. To some luck referred to things that were beyond a particular person or group of people’s control. Things within human control are determined by what we do or do not do – a simple cause and effect. When human efforts fail because the force of the water or wind are simply too great, then the outcome depends on good or bad luck. Others speak of luck almost as the wrath of Mother Nature - we were unlucky because Mother Nature was against us and the force of the flood was too much for the levees. Others use the word luck is a very fatalistic way. ‘I lost my home, it is sad, but I guess that is the luck of the draw, what you get is what you get.’ I heard a Weather forecaster say, ‘It was just unlucky that the rains coincided with a week of high tides.’ Listening to what people say, it seems to me that Australians certainly believe in luck, but exactly what it is and how it operates is difficult to determine.

Sportsmen seem to believe in luck as a form of superstition. Many go through weird rituals to ensure that they experience good luck while on the sports field. It is said that every time Steve Waugh played a match he carried a red handkerchief which was given to him by his late grandfather in his left pocket. Neil McKenzie of South Africa sought to changes his bad luck by resorting to some strange behaviour. He makes sure that all toilets seats are down and closed before leaving the dressing room to go out to bat. When your belief in luck includes superstition it implies looking for help from a force outside of yourself.

We have all heard about symbols of luck - a four leaf clover, a horse shoe, a breast bone of a chicken, a falling star, a cricket on the mantel piece or a rabbit’s foot. The rabbit’s foot has always troubled me as it is obvious that the rabbit was very unlucky. Maybe the rabbit’s bad luck will bring you good luck? In Brisbane over the past ten years the practice of feng-shui has gained considerable popularity. Any devotee to feng-shui will tell you how to avoid bad luck, ‘Certain features in your external environment can adversely affect the feng shui of your building. These 'poison arrows' can be responsible for ill-fortune in the form of robbery, legal entanglement or serious illness. It is, therefore, necessary to identify the not-so-obvious 'poison arrows' in your environment and to deal with them.’ Superstition is like a cancer, it grows and places a great restraint on people’s freedoms.

Do Christians believe in luck? Those who know, understand and apply the Scriptures do not, but many in ignorance still cling to superstitions linked to cultural influences. The doctrine that stands as a bulwark against the concept of luck is the doctrine of God’s Providence. This doctrine is spelt out in the fifth chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Paragraph 1 of Chapter 5 tells us: God, the great Creator of all things, upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible fore-knowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.

Paragraph 5 tells us how God’s providence impacts on believers: The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does often leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to reveal to them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they be humbled and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support unto himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.

Paragraph 6 tells us how God’s providence impacts on unbelievers: As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous judge, for former sins, doth blind and harden, from them he not only withholds his grace, whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings and wrought upon in their hearts, but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin; and withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan; whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God uses for the softening of others.

God is in control of all things, there is no luck or random chance. What is luck? Looking at it from a practical point of view I would say three things about luck:

1. Luck is an earplug that stops people hearing God calling people to repent of their sins and turn to him.

2, Luck is a blindfold that stops people seeing the hand and power of God – if men and women saw God and his mighty power they would fear him.

3. Luck is the wind that blows out the light of the mind – it keeps the mind in darkness and therefore from seeking answers from the God of all grace.

Believers have the promise of Romans 8:28, ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.’ Notice this is something we KNOW not hope or think. God’s providence is always ordering things for my spiritual good.

Unbelievers often vent anger at a God they do not know or understand. What God sends in mercy to alarm them about the reality of life and death – they read as unwarranted and unnecessary punishment. They ask the question: ‘What have I done to God to deserve this?’ They have assumed that they have not offended God. They should stop and think for a moment. The God of the Bible tells them that he is their Creator and they live in his world, they depend on him for life: for food to eat, water to drink, air to breathe, skills to enrich lives and opportunities to earn their daily bread. God tells them that they are totally and completely dependant upon him for all things. Now when an unbeliever asks, ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ We should answer, ‘You have ignored God on whom you are totally dependant and have behaved in a way that declares you do not believe he exists.’ What you have done by ignoring him deserves far severer suffering than you have received – you need to repent and believe in Christ Jesus in order to be reconciled to God.