Luck Or God…Or Us?

We want for things, always, and when they come to pass, we will say, “Boy, was I lucky!” or, “Boy, was God on my side.”
And, of course, those of us who believe neither in Luck nor God, will say, “I worked hard for this, my hard work paid off, and now I am rewarded with the achievement of my Goal…WHOO HOO!!! Partee!!!”

But I wonder which is true?
People who are Luck-Centred will carry Good Luck charms, and root for days or years with the number 7, while fear and loath those with the number 13. The failure or accomplishments of God-Centred folks will site THE BIG GUY as the sole reason for the outcome. And those who are Man-Centred, whose Egos always carry the day, no matter what the outcome, will believe that you get out precisely what you put into a thing, so if you get those Snake-Eyes at the Craps Table, it’s merely because your own wrist didn’t put enough Spin onto those dice.
I’m kind of a believer in the Trifecta, I think. If I work hard, stay dedicated, and focus all of my energy onto a thing, I believe I WILL be rewarded in kind, and when I am not, even after that monumental effort, I can easily come to the conclusion that God has been “trying” to teach me a lesson, I just plain in my single-minded greediness, refused to learn. Luck, well, sometimes if personal effort and God-alignment are just right, “Luck” can happen, I guess, and while I may be the receiver of the Good kind, a person right next to me may receive his or her undoing.
In man’s desire to land on the Moon, we, erroneously, focused far too much on the Destination. The moral uplifting of “winning” as a human race was glossed over by the immoral catalyst of being the political Super Power to the Russians, as if being the First to land on the Moon would somehow dissolve the Cold War between us and have those scythe-carrying communists at our beck and call. The Moon was just back-drop to the political will.
Boy, if all is God-driven, I imagine THE BIG GUY knew we were so far off base in every respect.
Apollo 8 allowed Us, for the very first time, to see that it was not the landing on the Moon that was so paramount, but the first glimpses of our own little Blue Marble that meant the most, then as now. Maybe for the first time, we as a human race saw that we truly ARE in this together, despite petty differences and mundane obstacles…we as We would “get there” only if we strived together to do so, Man-centred achievements, with the Grace of God, and a rabbit’s foot tucked between the lining of Neil Armstrong’s space suit.
We as a People succeeded for ALL mankind and in the moment, save for the views of the odd jaded politicians in Washington, D.C., We on this tiny Blue Marble, all glued, wide-eyed to our 15 inch black and white Cathode Ray Tube TVs, really didn’t think twice that the phrase, “The Eagle has landed.” meant that only the U.S. had but that the soaring discoverer in ALL of Us had “arrived”.
It took sticking a pen into the ascent breaker of the Lunar Module to get the Apollo 11 astronauts back home…was that Luck, or God, or the ingenuity of Buzz Aldrin?
However you slice it, they got home. And although Neil was heralded as the first man to land on the Moon’s surface, it has been Buzz who has told the story to all of Us all these years since because Neil, unlike Buzz, lacked the extroverted touch to relay what he experienced for himself. And now, with Neil’s passing, the torch is squarely put into Buzz’s hands, so by Providence, Happenstance or Talent, we know those first moments not thru Neil but through the second-string man. Who then “won” the moment? Neil for being in the record books as “first” or Buzz for giving Us all the gift of what they both endured? I think, now, Buzz is by far the best known, and any disappointment he may have had at being out of the L.E.M. “second” has been long forgotten with his First String public position ever since.
We all desire that ‘something” that we “think” will make Us ever-after Happy. And when we don’t get it, we sulk, we feel sorry for ourselves and do damage. But if we just waited long enough, remembered long enough, that We as a species lack the Big Picture in all things, we might see that disappointment in one moment can be glorious achievement in the next.
Thank your Lucky Stars.
Give thanks to God.
High-Five Yourself in the mirror or air pump Your fist.
You will “win” when it’s right to win, and the rest of the time, you will wait, whether you like it or not.
Wait with Grace, a Cool Head and with the Maturity to know to bring a good book to occupy your time….may I suggest my personal little-ditty Waiting favourite – War & Peace?