Scripture: Matthew 6: 25-29; 13: 44-46
Luck determines whether you were born into a wealthy or poor family, into the predominant racial group or a minority, etc. But Scripture never refers to luck. Bad luck, it implies, occurred either because God didn’t favour you, or because you sinned. As a result, Scripture gives us a partial and distorted picture of our place in God’s kingdom.
Good planning or good luck?
I have often commented that many good things and bad things that happen in life are caused by good or bad luck. Yet, Scripture does not acknowledge this. There are no – zero – instances of the words luck, lucky, fortunate, or good fortune in the Bible. Nor, for that matter, in any hymns that I know of.
The first brief quotation from Matthew’s Gospel is part of the Sermon on the Mount. Common experience tells us that when natural disasters occur, it’s usually a matter of luck whether your home is spared from fire or flood. But the Scripture comments only on the homeowner’s prudence, or lack of it, on where to build.
Similarly, in the two short parables that we also read, Scripture makes no mention of the person’s good fortune in discovering the treasure in the field, or the valuable pearl.
And likewise, God sends rain on the just and the unjust, but with no mention of the lucky and the unlucky. Worst of all, the story of Job details that God himself prompted Job’s misfortunes by allowing Satan to play games with him.
Outliers
I have had much good luck in my life. I was born into a stable family that had enough money. Also, I had excellent teachers and mentors, and in my career at the University of Guelph, no-one ever prevented me from teaching or researching the subjects that interested me.
But Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers recently gave me new insight into the question of good luck.
Gladwell’s proposes that many people who come from nothing to great success are indeed very able. BUT they were also lucky. Perhaps where or when they were born, or being in the right place at the right time. These kinds of factors give them greater opportunities than people who were equally able but didn’t have the luck of the draw.
Let me give a couple of Gladwell’s striking examples.
Birthdates of NHL players
Most NHL players have birthdays in the months January through March. It seems extraordinary. However, it’s because a) hockey progress depends on the rep leagues system; and b) enrolment depends on one’s birth year. Players born on January 1st compete with players born on December 31st of the same year – a year younger. At ages 6 or 7,those born early in the year have a huge advantage for selection to rep teams.
Therefore, those players get more coaching and ice time. Then, the next year, their advantage is greater. And so on. MLB does not use the rep system, and there is no “birth date” effect among baseball players.
Bill Gates and Microsoft
Another example. Bill Gates founded Microsoft in his teens. Yes, he was a genius. However, he had two other things going for him. A lucky chance gave him access to a high end computer throughout his teen years.
That was in the 1960s, when mainframe computers depended on card readers for data input and output. Hence, Gates’ unique ability to write software were present at exactly the right moment for a new approach.
To sum up
Luck determines whether you were born into a wealthy or poor family, into the predominant racial group or a minority, or the calibre of your teachers. I was lucky on all three counts.
But Scripture never refers to luck. Bad luck, it implies, occurred either because God didn’t favour you, or because you sinned. To ask why God allows misfortune to happen to people misses the point. By omitting any discussion of the role of luck in our lives, Scripture gives us a partial and distorted picture of our place in God’s kingdom. Amen.