watch your language

The Flathead Electric Co-op Annual Meeting is not a really fun place to spend an entire Saturday morning, but that is where my daughter and I trudged off to at 8:30 last Saturday.  They were doing a drawing at the very end of the meeting for two $500 scholarships for graduating seniors, and we figured it was worth a few hours of our time to take a chance on her winning one of those.   

For the entire meeting I kept looking at the last line on the program that said “drawing for scholarships”.  We saw about a dozen cards in the drawing box.  Odds were good for her to win one. 

I remembered what I heard a woman say before she played a game once.  “Well, my strategy is to pray for luck.”  And I thought –can it be both?  Do prayer and luck go together? 

Should I pray for my daughter to be lucky in this drawing?  Do God and odds mesh?  

In Isaiah 48:17 God says, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.” 

She didn’t win the scholarship. 

On the way home I told her, “It would be a really, really depressing life if all we had was luck.  Just beating the odds by chance.  Very depressing.” 

But we have God.

God directs.  Luck is random.   

God has a “what is best for you”.  Chance doesn’t care. 

God plans a specific way my daughter should go.  A specific college.  A specific way to pay for it.  A specific best plan for her in a specific direction. 

What do you hope for?  Do you speak of it with the language of luck or faith?