Do You Feel Lucky?

There is a scene in a movie I have watched where a character says,"I must be the most unlucky person in the world." The other character decides to educate him. The wise character says something like this,"You only say you are unlucky because you didn't realize how lucky you were yesterday. You thought yesterday you were just normal and now that things have taken a turn all of a sudden you feel unlucky. If today you are unlucky then every day up to this one you were very lucky so you should feel like you are a lucky person." I thought the scene was fascinating. Sometimes people come into my office and they think their life is very, very bad. They feel "unlucky". What they don't know is someone has just left my office that had a much worse situation. What is interesting to me is the attitudes people have. Most people think their attitude is a result of what is going on outside of them. After watching people for a long time I don't think that is the case. Attitudes seem to be based on expectations more than experiences. I sit with some people who are going through horrific experiences and yet they have an attitude laced with joy. Others fight the pull of bitterness and depression. I have been thinking more and more about the Gospel. It is the Gospel that helps me move everything in my life into the category of grace. If it is hell I deserve (and make no mistake, I do deserve it) then there isn't anything that can happen to me where I cannot say,"I had that coming." If it is grace I am given then there isn't a single good thing that happens where I cannot say,"Wow, I did not deserve that." I have to believe the Gospel is designed to change the way I experience every single thing in life. When I live by grace there isn't a day that goes by where I don't feel lucky.