Don't Depend on Luck
A FEW years ago, a friend of mine suddenly realized that she was entering her thirteenth year of working for one company. Although she is not normally superstitious, she found that she was having to fight off the feeling that this thirteenth year might be ``unlucky'' and end in her losing her job.
My friend's experience led me to think more deeply about supposedly ``lucky'' and ``unlucky'' days, numbers, clothing, colors, places, and so forth. I realized that nothing is lucky in and of itself. Rather, it is our belief that makes us think something will help or hurt us.
Such beliefs tend to blind us to a way of thinking that opens our lives to consistent good and makes luck obsolete. The Bible says that God is an all-loving omnipotent Being, who wants only good for His spiritual offspring. Christ Jesus drove home this point through his healing and teaching work. Jesus didn't wait for a ``lucky'' day to heal the sick. He, and those who came after him, perceived God's power as resting on law, not superstition or chance. And each in his own way was able to experience the consistent protecting power of that divine law.
For example, when Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked at the island of Melita, he and the others were greeted with kindness by the residents. Since it was raining and cold, they gathered wood so they could make a fire. The Bible, in Acts, tells what happened next: ``When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm'' (28:3-5).
The people were amazed by this, and the Bible goes on to say, ``After they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god'' (verse 6). Their safe arrival on the island and Paul's experience with the snake had nothing to do with luck--or with being a god! God, divine Love, was governing Paul's life and there is no need for ``luck'' when one is in the hands of omnipotence.
Like Paul, we can trust God's care for us and begin to know ourselves as His spiritual creation. As the children of infinite Love, or divine Mind, you and I are not subject to a ``lucky'' or ``unlucky'' destiny. We have been created for a wholly good purpose. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, makes this very clear in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She says, ``Man is not a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and sorrow, sickness and health, life and death'' (p. 246). A bit farther down that page she says: ``Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.''
These qualities--``wisdom, beauty, and holiness''--are our heritage as God's sons and daughters. The fears that would make us rely on luck are destroyed when we understand that right within us we have the spiritual resources to find lasting harmony. We don't need charms, amulets, or special numbers to help us along.
Instead, we can think of creation as resting on divine law--and on one infinite Mind, God, who knows only good. Then, for example, if we have a job interview, we can acknowledge this infinitely loving Mind as present with us, and we can turn to Mind for inspiration. As the source of all intelligence, Mind will surely be more useful to us than the foot of a dead rabbit! As we succeed more and more in yielding to this one Mind, all sorts of good qualities appear in our lives: wit, quickness of thought, patience, kindness, satisfaction, honesty, goodness. We find ourselves growing beyond believing that we need ``charms.'' We're certain of God's unfailing love for us.
Oh--by the way, through diligent prayer to know God's constant love for all of His children, my friend got through her thirteenth year on the job with flying colors. And she continues to work at the same place--in positions of ever-increasing usefulness--to this day.
