Lucky or Loved?

I've heard Australia called the "Lucky Country."  People use this cliche in a in a positive sense, apparently much to the dismay of Donald Horne who penned The Lucky Country, a book about Australia in 1964 written as a "wake up call to an unimaginative nation, an indictment of a country mired in mediocrity and manacled to its past."  It sounds a bit harsh not having read the book myself, but there's nothing quite like a good dose of Australian irony.  In my opinion Australia is a blessed country in a multitude of ways.  Because I believe we live in a world governed by God who has provided our natural resources, this beautiful and fruitful land, freedoms, our necessities, and even luxuries, we ought to credit Him where it is due.

Every so often I hear the phrase, "unlucky in love."  I wonder:  if people could have their choice of luck or love, what would they choose?  My grandfather has often said in jest, "I'd rather be lucky than good."  What is the lure of luck, anyway?  Is it a revelation we secretly desire something for nothing?  Or is it because we value a faceless, powerless entity who cannot protest called "bad luck" when we fail?  In thinking this over, I have decided I would rather be loved than lucky.  It would be better to live as a person loved by God than to have what men call good luck perpetually.  Luck is an empty promise which never delivers.  I do not consider The Beatles to be experts on such matters, but had they sung "All you need is luck" it would have sounded a bit hollow.

Today in church we sang a song by Brenton Brown called "Our God is Mercy."  It contains biblical wisdom the world and even Christians might recoil from:  "You're blessed if you've been torn apart; you're blessed if you've a broken heart, for hope is waiting at the door: salvation's near."  How can pain be a blessing?  For a Christian, the pain of God's correction is proof of His love.  Christians are reminded in scripture not to despise the chastening of the LORD, for in so doing He is treating us as beloved sons - even as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.  Some might ask, how can being torn apart in any way be construed as love?  Most men must be deathly ill before they will seek the care of a physician, and men must be in a severe state before they will humble themselves in desperation before a holy God.  It is in being torn apart a man can discover healing and wholeness he never experienced before.  All the "blessings" in the world are curses if they turn our affections from God.  How good for us are hard times when they prompt us to seek the LORD!  Only then will we know salvation and the love of God, and luck hasn't saved a person yet.