Who’s In Control? Luck or God?
I should know by now that being superstitious is no good. For one, it is all ridiculous. For two, it always gets me into trouble. I’m learning to get over this, but sometimes I fall back into my superstitious ways. I reaped the results of this a few days ago at dinner.
For whatever reason, I always throw salt behind me if I spill it. And I insist that anyone else who spills their salt do the same. So I was eating dinner with my friends, and my roommate knocked over the salt shaker; I of course gasped loudly and screamed “Bad luck!” So I grabbed her right hand, which was still grasping the salt shaker, and tried to throw it over her shoulder. What I ended up doing was launching salt particles right into my eye. I wasn’t even the one to spill the salt and I still got the bad luck. So unfair.
A few years ago, I had this really pretty black, white and pink flowery skirt that I loved to wear. But then my boyfriend dumped me while I was wearing it. So I declared it to be an unlucky skirt and retired it. A year later, I really wanted to wear the skirt and, since I told myself superstition was silly, I wore it again. But that day I got a bad grade on a paper I had worked super hard on and got in a fight with a good friend. I blamed the skirt. So I gave the cursed thing to Goodwill.
The worst example of my superstition gone wrong was a pledge I made in 5th grade. My two best friends and I were playing in front of our elementary school building waiting for our parents to pick us up and we noticed that the big tree by the sidewalk had a huge knot in it shaped like a heart. So for some reason that seemed logical in my 5th grade mind, one of my friends and I decided to pledge our love lives on this tree. My other friend refused to have a part in this—she was the smart one. We put our hands on the tree and swore that if that tree ever got cut down, our love lives would be ruined forever. And you know what happened that summer? The tree got hacked down and ground to mulch. From that point on, my friend and I had terrible luck with men. The friend who decided not to pledge is already married. So two years ago I bought a baby tree and planted it at the Indian Mounds and re-pledged my love life on it, more dedicating it to God than anything else. Now I have an amazing boyfriend. My other friend, who didn’t replant a tree, is still having relationship trouble.
I realize all this superstition/luck business is ridiculous. Some things, like the salt-throwing, I just do out of habit. The tree...well, that was just bizarre. And the skirt…wasn’t that cute anyways. But in all reality, there is no such thing as luck in this life. God is in control of everything. I can spend all my time blaming a skirt or a stupid pledge I said in grade school for my problems, but the truth is that God is sovereign and I need to trust Him in all situations. If I get a bad grade, I need to work harder. Not blame a piece of clothing. So I didn’t have great relationships growing up. I’m pretty sure God wasn’t turning away all these amazing men because I hadn’t planted a new tree. It just wasn’t in God’s timing. So now, instead of putting my faith in luck and superstition, I remember to place my faith in the almighty and sovereign God.