UPFRONT October 9, 2006 Issue

Try your luck?

STEVE GRAHAM, MANAGING EDITOR

The evidence is everywhere. On that billboard over the freeway, the one that updates you on the current megabucks jackpot (the other day I saw that it stood at $157 million). Behind the counter at the 7-Eleven, where 20-plus different scratch tickets offer a little chance at a windfall (they only cost a dollar!). On the nightly TV lottery drawing, where the little tumbling numbered balls randomly line up to form a winning combination (the pretty lady who draws numbers for Illinois encourages each viewer, "I hope tonight's your lucky night!"). On the Internet, poker is now a veritable industry, and the game has taken college and university campuses by storm.

The evidence is everywhere that people long to find a chance at happiness and prosperity and fun and security and health. And that's not bad at all. What isn't so good is that along with a chance at attaining those comes a chance at not attaining them. Or losing them once you get hold of them. There are many ways to gamble in life, and they all have the same roots; Lucky Lotto only serves as one rather prominent example.

This week the Sentinel takes a look at the obvious and subtle ways in which a belief in the random occurrence of events, good or bad, mocks the perfect and universal law of God, which we can always count on to bring the richness and health and healing we deserve—and this at nobody at else's expense. We'll discuss the ways in which prayer can heal the effects of accidents and other random events. And we'll look at how to conquer the fear that often undermines a recognition that Jesus' famous parable tells the truth: God is forever with us, and all that He has is ours.

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