What's luck have to do with it

When I was a young man, I would go to my father's office and there would be reams of paper stacked from the floor to over four feet high scattered throughout his office. He referred to it as his "vertical filing system". To me it looked like a bunch of work was being done as the piles seemed to only grow.

My father would carry with him a handheld recording device into which he would account for the time he had spent working on client matters. I was always amazed at the detailed notes he would take accounting for every minute of every day.

Finally, there were these two plaques on his desk. One said, "When up to your elbows in assholes, its difficult to remember the job was to drain the swamp." The other stated, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

It has taken me many years to realize the sage wisdom in both of these messages. The former very accurately depicts that life is not easy and you have to stay focused on the task at hand if you want to succeed. The latter is an extension of the former in that it is through hard work that you will obtain the success you seek so long as you don't lose sight of what you seek due to the alligators.

" But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Matthew 6:33

God tells us to seek the kingdom of heaven and to pursue what is righteous. To the extent we do this more "luck" will be added unto us. Heaven and righteousness are the draining of the swamp.

The devil and the ills of this world are the alligators. However, hard work is what will pull us through. Seeking does not entail standing in one place and expecting the world to cater to our needs, wants and desires. It means you must go after and hunt down the good fortune you seek.

What you keep searching for is what you will discover. If you are looking for prosperity, truth, opportunity, love, hope then you will find them. However, if you seek illness, failure, misery, hate, being destitute then the Devil is waiting to hand these out.

So as men and women of God, for what are you training your mind? When you enter the arena of sports, work, relationships or your spiritual walk, do you seek success and do you bust your butt to obtain it? Do you give the 110% coaches often ask you to give?

Here is the takeaway, lucky people keep getting lucky and unlucky people keep being unlucky.

It is a mindset, so take advantage of your luck. The more you become a student of your craft and seek to instill the principles of success the luckier you will become; until one day, you will find people looking at you and commenting on how lucky you are. However, both you and I will know it is purposeful faith coupled with action which continues to bring you "good luck".

Now if I could just find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow which I was told comes with the four leaf clover I scraped from the internet!