By Chance

Life may be simply described as a series of events.  Life events are considered determined or chance based on the one who lives the events.  For the chance believer, positive occurrences are considered good and negative occurrences are considered bad.  All actions leading to the end result are either controlled by the person or they are totally based on chance.  

For the determined believer, the one who believes that life can be planned, life’s events depend on themselves or someone / something greater than them that has the ability to arrange events in a manner that will accomplish what is desired.  In this life, positive occurrences are considered successes in a plan and bad occurrences are considered failures in a plan.  Absolutely nothing is left to chance, because chance is never part of a wise plan.  

Now, regardless of which type of believer you are, chance or determined, whether you believe that every event in your life is pure chance or if you believe that every step you take is part of a larger plan, God has His Turn.  I am aware that there are people who do not believe in God.  So what?  One’s beliefs have nothing to do with whether God exists.  And, more important to our subject matter, beliefs do not prevent God from having His turn.  

Absolutely, there are times when we do exactly what we want to do with total disregard for what God would obviously want and, frankly, with disregard for what is good for us.  These times cannot be considered chance because they are planned.  The result of such actions are not chance.  They are governed by the principle of causation where every cause (such as a person’s actions) has a resulting effect.  This principle is a natural law and therefore must be considered by design - not chance.  

So when could chances occur in our lives?  Well, eliminating all times where we take action would only leave the times when we do nothing and yet something happens.  Right?  Wrong.  First, doing nothing is doing something.  Much is done in life by doing nothing.  Second, things that happen to us that are out of our control - that we “had nothing to do with”- are the effects of others’ actions.  Principle of causation is in effect and you are in the way of the effect.  So even our inactive events are creations of the will of man and not chance.

Now let’s look at this idea of God’s Turn.  Chance believing person - God has His turn.  Determined believing person - God has His turn.  God’s Turn is experienced when the “turn of events” in your life are sent from God.  The purpose of God’s Turn is to fulfill His will and bring glory to Him.  This means that whether wanted or not, in life’s events God will have His turn.  Whether through your chance or through your plan, God will be glorified.

2 Chronicles 10:15