Don’t Entrust your life to ‘luck’

Aug 5 2005

Question:

Recently, a Christian friend of mine said he didn’t like to use words like ‘luck’ or ‘lucky.’  What do you think he meant?  If something good happens to me, I don’t see what’s wrong with saying I’ve been lucky, do you?

Billy Graham’s answer:

I suspect the reason you Christian friend doesn’t like to use words like ‘luck’ or ‘lucky’ is because they imply that our lives are ruled by chance.  But Christians don’t believe their lives  are ruled by luck or chance; they believe God is in control.  Think about it: If life is random or ruled by chance, then it doesn’t really have any higher purpose.  In fact, if you take it to its logical conclusion it means we are here by accident, and everything that happens to us is strictly accidental and has no meaning.  Or we may decide ware ruled by fate and have no control over our destiny.  But God tells us otherwise!  God created us and He put us here for a purpose. What is God’s purpose for us?  Simply this: that we would live for Him instead of ourselves.  Don’t trust ‘luck’ to give you happiness; instead, turn to Christ and put your future into His hands.

Jen’s response:

I love how Graham says that trusting luck isn’t a good thing, but trust Christ instead (as if that is any different.)  He is so circular sometimes.

Ok – even if we are here by chance, it doesn’t follow that everything that happens to us is accidental or has no meaning.  We do have the ability to think and to act.  We can choose to act in any number of ways and our actions do in fact have consequences, although, those consequences are governed by probabilities.  For instance, if you drink heavily and decide to drive, and then wreck your car, that isn’t fate or chance.  You had control of your decisions and choose to act in a way that increased the probability of getting into an accident.  Now, if you choose to drink and drive and make it home in one piece, then I would say, you got lucky, because you beat the odd (probability).  The more lopsided the odds are against something happening, the ‘luckier’ you are to beat them, although this doesn’t take into account the fact that in most cases, you can take preventative measures to change the odds against you. 

As for the meaning of life, any thinking person can give meaning to their lives and actions just by thinking about it.  Sometimes they give good meaning to things, sometimes we read into situations meanings that aren’t there.  I fail to see how trusting in Christ helps an individual decide on what the meaning of any given situation is.  The individual still has to think about it and decide for themselves what it is they think the meaning is if any at all. (See what I mean about circular).

I really think that people like Graham, even though they are apparently loving individuals, live in a world governed by fear.  Perhaps he doesn’t trust himself to make good informed decisions and to act in a way that maximizes his chances of success, so instead, he trusts that God will provide.  But this to me is more like leaving you life to chance and fate then taking responsibility for the quality of your life into your own hands.

I mean really, if you want to be a rock star, just sitting on a couch praying isn’t going to get you there.  You need to learn to play an instrument and sing, go out and find a band, build your chops, develop a following and do all the actual tangible things needed to make your dream a reality.  Nothing happens just because you trusted Christ to provide for you. At some point, you need to act and that requires you to decide what it is you want to do, why you want to do it and to take tangible steps to increase the probability of your success.  You can change the odds you are working with.  That isn’t fate, chance or luck.  That is just plain human ingenuity.