Lucking Out
You and your cards
Originally published in 2009.
Back when the book was popular, two people recommended the book The 48 Laws of Power to me. So I ordered it from Amazon and it shipped a few hours after I did so. (I had read the book partially before that; I had checked it out of the library. And because I’m usually reading a minimum of two books simultaneously, I didn’t get to read it fully before I had to take it back.)
One of the proponents of the book, Tamon, called the following law ‘the most memorable’ for him: “Avoid the unhappy and the unlucky.” Am I intrigued by this caution? You bet. But, at the same time, the admonition seems almost redundant.
As a Christian, I try to stay away from certain words; words that indicate a life ruled by chance; words which imply that any force has power over the power of God - words like ‘lucky,’ ‘fortunate’ ‘unfortunate,’ even words like ‘coincidence.’ I stay away from those words because they indicate disbelief, doubt and/or non-belief in the identity and character of the God of the Bible.
But thinking about the word ‘unlucky’ and joining it to the concept of unhappiness, those who are “unlucky” seem to be those who believe that nothing good will happen to them. As a result, usually, nothing does and even when they "luck up" and something good does happen to them, they find some flaw in that good thing and complain about it.
There are those who believe that things will never turn out all right. In other words, there are those who have little to no faith in God and, therefore, such people don’t believe that God loves them, wants them to be happy and has the power to make that happen.
Now I’m not saying that God is going to let even those who consistently have faith in Him have anything and everything that they want, because God knows that not everything that an individual wants is necessarily going to be good for that individual. But those who are “unlucky” can’t even take pleasure in getting lucky (if you’ll pardon the expression). No. The "unlucky" will remain under that dark cloud, refuse to be moved and, as a result, the unholy union of unluckiness and unhappiness is joined together.
Further, the unlucky often have removed themselves from the Providence of God, either by omission or commission. Rather than being “unlucky” what such people are subject to are the forces of Chaos. They are outside of the Order that God provides which means, as the saying goes, feces will always happen to that person.1 So this leads us back to the law which Tamon found so remarkable: if you know an unhappy-unlucky person, you want to stay far away from said person because you don’t want their feces to splash on you merely because of proximity.
Conversely, those of us who believe in God’s Providence, who believe in the Bible’s promises, who believe in the power of God, are always “lucky,” are always “fortunate” and are, therefore, always “happy” even in sorrow, because the one thing that we know and are always happy about is that our souls are saved - that everything will come out alright in the end for us. We have our Blessed Assurance in Jesus the Christ.
And ultimately, if we have faith, things are going to turn out alright not just in the end but while we are trying to get to the end.
My pastor, learned in the languages of the Bible - ancient Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic - taught us that the word used for ‘power’ in Greek when discussing God’s power is ‘dynamis,’ obviously the origin of the words ‘dynamite’ and ‘dynamic’ - the agent and description of radical change.2 It is the type of change that certain earthly politicians can’t begin to comprehend.
God can change things; like your “luck.” It seems to me that, after asking Him to do so, the logical thing is to be happy about it.
Of course we know that bad things happen to the faithful as well. But my observation is about attitude: that there will be an end to the avalanche of poop falling on one’s head. That ending presumes a life beyond this one and a power greater than all earthly power(s).
Strong’s Concordance 1411.
While many appear to sincerely believe in "luck," I have always considered the term unlucky as shorthand for "having poor judgement." While random chance, or even more frequently careless or outright malevolent individuals inflict harm upon us, most of the cases I have seen of unlucky people have all shared appalling judgement. Very few people are simply walking down the road minding their own business when a piece of bad luck detaches itself from the heavens and falls upon them.
Yeah, sure a driver can have a heart attack and plow his car right through your store or home. These things are unpredictable and by their very nature cannot be planned for... although a thoughtful person might take steps in advance to mitigate the results (even a precaution as simple as having an insurance policy). But barring the Biblical tale of Job, people who have a constant run of "bad luck" almost always seem to display the same characteristic - a run of poor decisions if not outright reckless behavior. While bad things do happen to good people, and even to only moderately okay people, if you are seriously asking "why do these things keep happening to me?" you probably ought to start your examination of your poor luck with your own self.
I am one of those unlucky people who was enduring the 80's. Nothing went right, I always complained and I never could imagine I was indeed fortunate; Healthy, serving our country in a very fun, important mental and physical occupation and I was not ugly! (Only my attitude...) I realize now the problem was in my self, in every thing I did, say and feel. Today, every night I pray that the Lord forgives me of my sins from then and now, I thank the Lord every day that I made it to now with more than what I hoped for. Thanks for reminding me of me... DC