Just My Luck

In general, I consider myself to be a positive person. I recently had an older gentleman from church tell me how he’s always happy to see me because I have a smile on my face all the time.

But I have caught myself at times looking in my rearview mirror and seeing that my default expression is not really a smile but a frown. Even when I’m not thinking negatively or am sad about anything, my lips are curled downward. And although I would like to think I’m a “glass half full” kind of thinker the reality is sometimes the glass seems half empty.

On more than one occasion I found myself using the phrase “just my luck”. That is something we tend to say when things don’t go our way or when something bad happens. Of course, I’m not one who believes in luck because I know God is sovereign, but that common phrase is really a way of looking at things negatively.

Consider the following examples. Some are very close to home and others I just made up. I will let the reader guess which are which.

It’s just my luck it rains all day when I was planning to cut the grass. I had to hurry to the grocery store to pick up a few things and it’s just my luck I picked the slowest line to check out. It’s just my luck that I caught a bad cold on the week that I was so busy. It’s just my luck that that gravel flew from the truck and put a chip in my windshield. It’s just my luck that the restaurant ran out of the soup of the day. It’s just my luck that the police officer was hidden so well when I was just trying to make up for a little lost time. It’s just my luck that new ownership at work means new challenges and many changes for me. How did that stain get on my new shirt? It’s just my luck. I could give many more illustrations, but it would be just my luck to go over my word limit for this column.

While it may be less than ideal to have a day of rain when the grass needs cut, I should be grateful for the rain and the fact that I must cut grass instead of shovel snow. And waiting another day or two won’t really matter. Maybe I can rest up since I won’t be mowing or can get something done inside that I would not have otherwise.

Most of us predict which line is the best to get in because time is precious. But why get aggravated with the cashier or the person in front of me when I’m probably only losing a couple minutes from my day? Instead of stewing, I could be praying for the people around me in the store or speaking kindly to someone behind me. I can be thankful that I have money to buy groceries.

There’s certainly not a convenient time to get a cold or the flu. I’m recovering from having a bad cold this week. There were times when I thought it just wasn’t going to get better but it eventually did. In retrospect, it would have been much worse to be sick last week than it was this week. Meanwhile, I recognize that there are people dealing with far worse than a sore throat, coughing and sneezing.

I don’t like having a small chip on my windshield but at least it isn’t a crack that it is spreading and would need an expensive repair. I can look around the little speck. Everyday people are involved in serious car accidents that are no fault of their own. Lives are lost on the roadways. I should thank God that he keeps me safe for the many miles that I drive.

Maybe the soup did run out at a bad time but perhaps someone else really enjoyed the soup that you wouldn’t have even appreciated. Choosing an alternative may have helped you think outside the box. And you can be grateful that you have the money to eat out at the restaurant when a lot of people are starving. It’s not like the restaurant wanted to run out of your favorite soup anyway. So don’t take it out on the server.

If we were going the speed limit, we would not have to be concerned with how well the police car was hidden. Imagine how fast cars would drive if there were no threats of speed traps. The officers are doing drivers a favor by enforcing speed limits. If I am driving too fast, I should be prepared to suffer the consequences. And as aggravating as it may be, it doesn’t really matter if someone previously just blew by me and wasn’t caught.

Perhaps new ownership at work will lead to better opportunities. And the changes and challenges that come along with it can be good for my experience and building my character. It could also give me the opportunity to be an example for others of how to handle change. I can’t always control my circumstances, but I can control my attitude.

No one likes discovering a stain, especially if it’s on a new shirt or top. But typically, with some effort the stain will come out. And unless it’s a rare circumstance, there’s only one person to blame for the stain. I should also be thankful that I have a new item to wear even if it did get stained.

We recognize that in life there are going to be challenges, setbacks, and things that happened that discourage us. But we must keep things in proper perspective. To say that something is “just our luck” makes it sound like we are less blessed or less fortunate than others but is probably not the case. Obviously, a person of faith has many blessings in this life and the next.

We would be wise to count our blessings rather than focus on the things that are not right or are less than ideal. There is a reason for the common Old Testament phrase “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever”. I close with the words of Paul that I will try to substitute the next time I’m tempted to say something is just my luck. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again – rejoice (Philippians 4:4)!