There’s an interesting post on Freakonomics call "Luckonomics, Anyone?" in which Stephen Dubner says:

In the vast majority of the “success literature” I’ve read (including
rags-to-riches autobiographies as well as the biographies of
politicians, athletes, businesspeople, etc.) and the vast, vast majority
of the media appearances and lectures I’ve seen by successful people,
luck is almost never mentioned as a major contributor. It’s always
dedication, hard work, brilliance, grace under pressure, etc.

He goes on to say that he’s been encouraged recently to read articles in which luck is recognized as a large factor in some person’s or entity’s success.  I’ll throw my hat in the ring with Mr. Dubner and say that I firmly believe that luck, both good and bad, is a huge component of everyone’s life. 

I’d like to add, however, that I think that if you were to read interviews with many people they will attribute their success to God, Yahweh, Allah, etc.  I think they would argue that good fortune bestowed by God is not the same as good luck, or that bad luck is not equivalent to God’s wrath because the faithful basically believe that God has an active hand in their lives.  Personally I subscribe to the weather theory;  that God had an active hand in our creation, including our capacity for critical thinking and that the rest has been left up to us.

That means I do believe in luck. If my house is struck by lightning do I blame God?  No, it just so happened that my house was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  If I’m watching a baseball game and a screaming foul ball misses my head by inches but brains the minister sitting behind me do I credit God’s guiding hand?  No, I just got lucky that I was sitting in my seat and not in the seat behind me. After all if God’s hand guided the ball away from my head that means that it also guided it to hit the minister which really doesn’t make a lot of sense.

When I was a teenager I used to watch the news and see the video of mass starvation in Ethiopia and wonder, "Why would God allow that to happen?" and I’d also wonder at why I was born and raised in a rich country, never missing a meal in my life and surrounded by caring and thoughtful people.  Why wasn’t I born in Ethiopia, surrounded by starving and desperate people?  I just couldn’t buy the idea that God intentionally put children in that spot.  I still don’t buy it.

So what I do think is this: God created this universe and everything in it.  God gave human beings the ability, the right, to be free and to think for themselves and with it the responsibility to manage their little corner of the universe.  Luck, good and bad, is a result of the trials that God built into the universal order. Bad weather, bad people, bad decisions, etc. are an intentional aspect of God’s creation. It is our test to see how we use our tools, our rights, to respond to our good or bad luck, and our "grade" will help determine where we’ll eventually go when we move into the next realm. 

If you are a fortunate one do you endeavor to share your good fortune?  If you are an unfortunate one do you exact revenge on the more fortunate, or do you endeavor to change your fortunes?  Personally I feel I’ve been very fortunate in this life (one longtime friend says there must be something called "Lowder Luck" because I tend to get very lucky breaks very often) but I worry that I have not done enough to share my good fortunes.  Perhaps it is time to change that.