Leave Nothing to Chance

Bringing a spiritual perspective to world events and daily life.

When I was young I was cast in a one-act play as a mythical character called Chance. My first line, directed to the audience, was as I recall, "I am that cunning infidel by men called 'Chance'; you know me well!" I'm not sure of the rest of the play, except that through my antics I was able to make a fastidious king, who set out to find a fastidious wife, marry a slattern.

Chance, you might agree, is indeed cunning. Sometimes we may think chance has dealt us a lucky hand; other times not so lucky. Few of us trust the really important things in life to chance. We would rather have our own hands on the wheel and have a say in our own destiny. Still, many people do believe they are affected by luck or chance.

I believe important events in our lives, and even those we may consider not so important, are guided by a divine influence that I and many others call God. A woman named Mary Baker Eddy wrote that ". . . God is our helper. He pities us. He has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers" (Unity of Good, pp. 3-4). Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science, which shows God to be Principle. We all know the influence that the principle of mathematics holds over numbers; and in a more fundamental way, if we know that we ourselves are under the influence of God, divine Principle, we can see more purpose and certainty in our lives.

The randomness of events casts an ominous shadow over the world. Although chance says we might get a pleasant surprise by winning a lottery or stumbling onto a golden opportunity, it also suggests that things can be out of sync -- that accident or happenstance can upset our lives.

Sometimes we may think that God works through chance or that chance occasionally usurps His power. But Christian Science has shown me that God is good and that He alone is in perfect control of all-that we live under divine law and order and that His government is always holding us in perfect harmony with all else. When we understand God we see more of His hand in all things, working for good always. We may not readily see the good evidence of divine Principle at work in human affairs, but we can trust the fact that God is omnipotent good and does not allow a single glitch to disrupt His design.

Does God have a hand in what we call disasters, tragedies, accidents? No! And our understanding Him stops us from believing that He could have created them in the first place. God awakens us to the truth that all these evils stem from incorrectly understanding the spiritual facts of being. Accidents are neither real nor actual to God. By knowing and hearing God, Christ Jesus was able to awaken others to the reality of being. This resulted in health, reformation, and vitality.

We may not realize how often we are tempted to believe in chance. Weather reports give "a 50 percent chance of rain"; direct mailings say we have "a very real chance of winning a million dollars"; medical reports may say the chances of getting a certain disease are "one in ten or twenty." The very two-sidedness of chance should indicate the inherent wrongness in it.

The Bible says in Proverbs, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (3:5, 6). "In all thy ways" admits no exceptions. Are you bold enough, faithful enough, to trust God? It's then that you more easily see His direction in every aspect of life. Trust nothing to chance and everything to God's providence, which doesn't allow for the slightest evil, whether it is called sickness, sin, or death. God allows for no lack, no foolish mistake. The only reason for seeing these things or suffering from them is that one is believing in a dualism to life, in which good and evil, right and wrong, life and death, are all normal. When we can see the unreality of sin, sickness, and death -- of the "chance" of stumbling into evil -- then we can destroy them as Jesus did, understanding that all was made by God to be good.

There is no chance at all, good or bad. All is under the control of God. All the precious things in life are already ours from God, through an understanding of Him. Why even think of trusting them to chance?

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