I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. – Ecclesiastes 9:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 18, 2013): Ecclesiastes 9

Things do not always happen in the way that we might expect them to happen. Sport has long been an example of what can happen against all odds. I am currently watching my favorite baseball team, who according to all the experts, before the season began, were going to challenge for the championship this year wallow near the bottom of the league standings. It was not supposed to be this way, but it is. It was not expected, but it is.

I think we all play “what if” games about our own lives. What if something had happened, or had not happened – how different would our lives be? And we all have this dream for our lives that remains unfulfilled, but we often think that if chance had just favored us our lives would have turned out differently. And in this verse, which is one of the most quoted verses of Ecclesiastes, The Teacher agrees with us. Chance plays a huge role in our lives. And chance is the universal condition – all of us struggle with the chances that we have received – and the ones that never showed up. And sometime it is this reality that causes us to believe in fate.

But for the Christian, this idea of fate or chance is a little unsettling. Is it possible that so much of our lives really has to be left to chance? We really do not want to believe that this is the way that it has to be – we want it to be different. Maybe a better way of looking at fate or chance is that God gives to us the opportunities that he has for us – and we all have those opportunities. The real question is not “why God did I not get that chances which would have changed my life – why has fate not smiled on me,” but rather “what did I do with the chances I did receive.” There is no place for bitterness at the things that life has handed to us when we know that we all have left chances and opportunities that were handed to us and have done nothing with them. And that is the question that we really need to deal with.

Napoleon, because of rainstorm, lost the battle at Waterloo (and yes that is a little oversimplified.) But Napoleon’s attack did not happen on time at Waterloo because the field was too wet for the horses to maneuver. The delay allowed his opponents the time to prepare for his coming. The Duke of Wellington made the most of the chance rainstorm and turned the battle to his favor. Napoleon had made the most of other chances, but this one went against him. And there were probably other choices that Napoleon could have made on that fateful morning, but he did not make those choices. King Ahab of Judah was killed by a meaningless arrow aimed at no one – and yet, somehow God’s will was still accomplished. For us, all that we are asked to do is to make the most of the chances that he has given to us – and leave the chance and fate to him.      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 10

Note: The VantagePoint message "Living the Furture" from the Series "Surprised by Hope" is available on the VantagePoint Community Church (Edmonton) Website. You can find it here.