"The Lucky One"

My coach use to say, "luck is when preparation meets opportunity." While its common to associate luck with random good fortune or destiny, this saying reminds us that while luck has some component of "randomness," which we sometimes call destiny, it also reminds us that good fortune generally comes in combination of "random events" and our response to them.

Its is a bit difficult to understand luck, however, when one's good fortune comes at someone else's expense. Such it was in this movie where Logan's fortune of finding Beth came at the death of Beth's cherished brother. The challenge Beth had in responding to her love for Logan was that her borther's death made way for her love for Logan.

When we make sense of luck through the lenses of the carnal mind, we are constrained by "cause and effect." That is, the human nature is to make sense of ourself and the world around us thru the mechanism of "A because of B". Students make class scheduling choices for many insignificant reasons. Yet often I have a student whose life was signifciantly affected by the class. I ask, "why did you choose my class." The answer, no real reason, it just fit my schedule better. Yet a seemingly unpurposeful action resulted in "good fortnue" for the student. We are apt to call this luck or better yet, destiny.

God's ways are not our ways and He is working ALL things for His purposes. Thus, "event A" doesn't necessarily cause "event B". ALL events are under His Sovereign purpose. While we can never rationalize this in our minds because the constraints of our nature, we can accept His hand in our path because of our Faith in His goodness.

Yet, while we accept that the so called "random events" in our life are under His hand, we still must act for the purpose to be consumated. Logan walked from Colorado to Lousiana, he was patient with Beth and the circumstances of the place she lived, including her ex husband and fathjer of her son. Logan's action in concert with events brought about the good fortune of those involved.

If you really want to delve into God's sovereignty, you might ask why did Logan ever make the effort to pick up the picture when he saw it? What nurtured his heart of thankfulness for Beth. Why did he associate his good luck in Iraq with this picture? Was this all Logan's doings or was God unctioning Logan through all the moments of his journey and Logan was "constrained to act" according to these unctions?

Its possible that's where our good forthune comes from, our "response" to what he is doing in a complex network of lives and events. Something to ponder ......