Is it luck or something else?

I've always been a believer that everything happens for a reason, so I'd say I'm more of the divine intervention type....but part of me believes in luck too. I mean really, I don't think that God totally plans for people to win the lottery because sometimes it happens to large groups of people (like the Mega Millions) and I don't think we are all predestined to win contests and things of that nature. Some people are just lucky.

Take for example my brother, one Christmas he won $47 on scratch of tickets and I won $1. He also wins on bottle tops for pop and the non-scratch off tickets too, nothing more than $50 but still, its pure luck! Sure I've won a few things in my life, but nothing like Adam has over the years.

But there are times when I know for sure that God has intervened and luck no longer comes into play. Here are just a few things I can think of that have happened in my life.

• I remember when I was about 10 or 11 we were leaving church and running late getting out. My parents sing with a group at our church and everyone likes to sit around and talk after mass and for some reason things went long that day. We finally headed out and got up to the freeway overpass that we go under on the way home and noticed a horrible accident. A truck had come over the bridge and fallen onto the road below not even 15 minutes before we got to the intersection. Had we left church on time we could have been under that bridge and been smashed by that truck. For some reason that story has stuck with me for many years.
• I cooked lasagna for my high school boyfriend for valentines day one year. I planned this nice dinner with him and my parents even said they would leave so we could be alone! I was so nervous about it that I didn't cook the meat before I added it to the mix, but thankfully I didn't set the oven timer and the lasagna cooked a little longer making the meat cook as well and no one got sick. I would have been mortified at the time if I would have cooked something that made my boyfriend puke.
  
• I was supposed to be a personal assistant for a Realtor a few years back and after spending two months training for the job, he decided he could no longer afford an assistant. I had already quit my other job at the office to do this and I was angry. When his assistant came back from maternity leave he canned her too and he got in trouble for wrongful termination and moved to another brokerage....needless to say it was a good thing I didn't keep that job because I would have been wound up in his problems. Besides that I got a better job where I was able to put to use what I had done in school!

I had a hard time writing this post because it was hard for me to think of other reasons that I don't always believe in luck. I think there is a certain element that free will plays in all of our lives, but at the same time God has some kind of plan for all of us. Sure, we may not always think that what happens is fair, but its just the way things were destined to be.

So which do you believe in, luck or divine intervention?

I'm participating in Mama Kat's writers workshop today, so get on over there and do the same!