Luck Is For Pagans

by Major Danielle Strickland

There is a saying in my family, “Luck is for pagans.” My nine-year-old son grew up saying it and we find it hilarious most of the time—awkward at others. The most striking thing about his response is realizing how much we use the term. It seems superstition laced with fatalism is running rampant in the world—even in the Christian community.

While speaking with a Christian woman the other day about a trying circumstance, she responded, “Oh well, whatever will be, will be.” Really, I thought? That’s the best we’ve got?

The other familiar string of fatalism is the idea that God wants us to go through every difficult situation for some cosmic reckoning. I know a recovering drug addict who has been horribly abused by nearly every male figure in her life. She recently told me that she knows God allowed it all to happen for a reason.

But what reason would God have to allow one of his children to be abused? Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe with my whole heart that God can and will use absolutely everything and redeem it all for his glory. But God never allows horrible things to happen for some kind of divine reason. Horrible things happen to us for many reasons. Among them are sin, death, evil, the enemy who seeks to kill, steal and destroy. Life isn’t fair, but that is never how God intended it to be.

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