When I went in for an ultrasound a number of years ago concerning my third miscarriage, the medical staff confirmed I was miscarrying as I had suspected.  The technician went on to say that I was just unlucky.  She seemed like a very nice person, and I assume she was trying to comfort me.

Sooooo…how do I change my luck so I can start holding my babies instead of burying them???

Luck.  It permeates our society.  Our conversations.  Our movies.  Our books.  Our everything.

Over a decade ago a mentor confronted me in conversation when I mentioned luck.  Did I really believe in some impersonal, vague force like my words indicated?  Or did I believe things happen according to the plan of a loving, sovereign God?  I hadn’t thought about the terms luck, lucky, and unlucky in that light before.  But, I could see what she was getting at.  “Lucky” moments, when life goes our way, are opportunities to turn and praise God and express thankfulness to Him.  “Unlucky” moments, when life doesn’t go our way, are opportunities to turn and trust God’s sovereignty and cry out to Him for help and comfort.

If my life is based on how lucky or unlucky I am, I am simply at the hands of some invisible, impersonal force and I have no hope.  And neither do you.  But there is hope.    Check out the life of Job.  Joseph.  David.  Ruth.  Esther.  Or anyone else in the Bible.  Throughout all Scripture, God’s sovereignty in every person’s life is shining through.  Luck is absent because it simply doesn’t exist.

Thankfully, the conversation with the mentor had happened several years prior to the moment at the ultrasound.  Though I was heartbroken at the loss of another child, I knew luck had absolutely nothing to do with the loss I was experiencing.   My third miscarriage was planned on purpose for me by a loving, sovereign God who specifically designed that trial for my good and His glory.

I am not unlucky.  And neither are you.