Luck or Providence?

David McCullough’s book, History Matters, is a collection of essays, speeches, and brief unfinished pieces culled from the popular historian’s files after his death. Included is a commencement address delivered in 2018 at, quite ironically, Providence College. Why ironically? The title of the speech was “Take Luck to Heart.” The thesis was that “luck, good luck, and bad luck, play an important, an immensely important, part in life, and so it does in history.” (p. 17)

Providence College is a Catholic institution named after the city where it is located. Doubtless, McCullough knew the history of Providence, Rhode Island. In 1635 a Baptist preacher named Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts by Puritans who demanded religious conformity. Williams established a community where the Baptist distinctive of individual soul liberty and thus religious freedom could be exercised. He named his settlement after a great biblical truth. Providence is the idea that God sees the end from the beginning and sovereignly works events together for His ultimate glory and the good of His people. Providence is the opposite of luck. God governs in the affairs of men, protecting, providing, and guiding. He employs secondary means and what might be perceived by some as incidental occurrences to achieve His desired ends.

Among the historical events McCulough identifies as luck is the timely change in weather that allowed General George Washington to evacuate his troops from Brooklyn Heights when they were trapped by the British. Had the man who became “the father of his country” been captured along with his fighting forces early in the war, the American revolution would surely have failed. But from the eyes of faith, a Christian can see that God had other purposes. America was born. Surely, the United States is not solely a Christian nation. But no country in history has been so instrumental in promoting individual freedom and the spread of the gospel around the globe. Is it luck, or the providence of God?

McCullough also sees as an example of luck a serious injury sustained in a hockey game by a preacher’s son from Dayton, Ohio. This young man showed great academic promise and planned to attend college. However, the injury, the pain, and the long recovery brought on a deep depression that kept him at home for three years. While passing the time by reading, an article about a German glider enthusiast caught the young man’s attention. The article suggested that if the mystery of the bird’s wing could be solved mathematically, a heavier than air flying machine could be built. Along with his equally brilliant brother Orville, Wilbur Wright embraced the challenge, and successfully designed, built, and flew the first airplane.

There is in this incident in the life of Wilbur Wright an inspiring lesson in providence seen clearly by those who do not subscribe to luck alone. God sometimes employs tragedies and even evil to accomplish His designs. God is not the author of evil, nor does He endorse it. But He does overrule and employ evil at times to achieve His good ends. Rather than despairing when hardships come, the Christian should trust in God. He is in control. This is providence.

In his sermon on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter refers to the greatest injustice that ever occurred, when the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, was taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain. In the same breath Peter says this was done by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” (Acts 2:23) Men were responsible for their evil act. God was responsible for bringing about the salvation of the world through the death and subsequent resurrection of His Son. (Jn. 3:16) Providence.

God does indeed work all things together for good to them that love Him, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28) It is not always perceived. In fact, most often it is not. But in the incidents of life, God is at work. I hope that at some point David McCullough came to appreciate this.

David A. Oliver is the pastor of Ashley Baptist Church in Belding, MI.