I have caught myself often remarking how lucky I am, and you have too, no doubt. Our daughter-in-law once said she can find four-leaf clovers just about any time she wanted. She then went outside in our front yard to prove it. Handing me a perfect four-leaf clover five minutes later, she stated that she just sees things a little more clearly than most people.
Loralei is one of those sweet souls who is always smiling, always happy. I don’t know if I would call her lucky, in spite of marrying one of the nicest guys on the planet, but she sure makes the most of what she has. My sneaking suspicion is that lucky people are just folks who are looking for the good in every situation.
Is luck really just a positive outlook on life? Is it, like Loralei says, just seeing more clearly? Donald Trump once said that “Everything in life is luck.” Yet I don’t see him sitting around waiting for good things to happen to him. He obviously goes out and makes a large share of his own luck.
“A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck,” said James A. Garfield, a Christian preacher and our 20th U.S. President.
The abundance of clover where Loralei found her prize shows that I’m not lucky in lawn care. My husband and I have our own term of endearment for it: “Green stuff that grows on the ground.” We cannot be bothered with the trouble and expense of lawn care when we have so many garden beds to take care of. The ubiquitous clover, henbit, Bermuda grass, and dandelions will have to substitute for real grass for the time being. While it is a truism that the harder we work the luckier we get, I’m not ready to put that kind of effort into ridding my lawn of clover.
Perhaps good fortune can be defined as positive outlook plus hard work. Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “Diligence is the mother of good luck.” We are diligent with the things that matter to us. Maybe we are not lucky, or happy, in the areas in our lives we are not actively working on. Good luck may take good work.
Jesus taught on “happiness” in the Sermon on the Mount. The descriptions are a little surprising at first glance, because they do not denote what society calls happiness or luck. The word “happiness” comes from the same word as “happenstance.” It’s basically stuff that just happens. The same can be said for luck.
However, when Jesus talks about it, it is the seemingly negative conditions that make us happy, or a better word for it — blessed. Why? Check it out, in each case it is because of our relationship to God. Of all people, we should feel lucky, happy, blessed. Because we certainly are!
“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights”(James 1:17, NASB). This passage says nothing of luck, but everything about how God blesses us.
While I may not have Loralei’s eye for mutant clover sprigs, I would do well to see how lucky and blessed I am, by making a point to notice the good in everything.
“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:8).
Christine (Tina) Berglund @ www.forthright.net