Somebody upstairs likes Billy:
In 2004 nine-year-old English soccer fan Billy Harris had a dream that Middlesbrough, his favorite team was going to beat Bolton 2-1 and win the English League Cup and that a specific player, a gent named Zenden, would score the wining goal. Billy's dad, who had never bet on a game before put the equivalent of $27 dollars on the team. On February 29th the game was played and Middlesbrough, a 60-to-1 long shot, beat Bolton and won the cup. The score was 2-1 ... and Boudewijn Zenden scored the winner. Dad won $1,600 and mom gave Billy a notepad to write down all his dreams.
Somebody like Rolla? Not so much...
In 1949 Rolla Primarda of Taranto, Italy, was struck and killed by a bolt of lightning. According to weather experts, the odds of that happening to anyone are about, 600,000-to-1. Having said that, what makes Primarda's fate so amazing is that his dad had been struck down by lightning 20 years earlier in the exact same spot. Spooked yet? 3o years before that, his grandfather had died ... in the same place, in the very same way.
Is there a blurred line between destiny and luck? Are there forces behind some of these occurrences or simply the law of averages stretched out through the ages? In the coming blog postings I'd like to look at some of these types of things. You are welcome to play along.
First of all, are these coincidences or not?
Tom
2 comments:
I was always told that words such as "luck," "fortune," "chance," "coincidence," etc., were bad words to use. They took God out of the equation. But as I've gotten older and thought about it more, I don't really know what to think. But God sometimes takes Himself out of the equation, doesn't He? He deliberately does NOT control everything here on earth. Our own choices or the choices of others sometimes affect what happens to us. When I'm running late for work, but I manage to drive through our downtown without having to stop at any of the 4 lights, was God changing the lights on my behalf, or did I get lucky? Whether you like the word or not, I can't think of another word to describe it. I got lucky. I don't think God bothered to change the lights, especially considering it was my own choices that made me late.
Now, as for the stories you told ... Has Billy had any more dreams that netted his dad some winnings? I haven't heard of him, and I think I would have if his father had become a billionaire from his dreams. So, was it a once-in-a-lifetime lucky shot? Was Billy's dream prophetic ... or something else, like the hopes of a 9-yr-old boy that just happened to come true in real life?
Lightning striking the same place 3 times ... apparently these 3 people didn't listen to warnings about avoiding open fields or tall trees in thunderstorms. (o; Maybe the real coincidence is that there were 3 generations in a row of not very bright men.
All that said, sometimes I hear someone use the word "lucky" or "coincidental," and I do believe it was God's intervention that changed their "fortune," so I wish they would instead admit that they had been blessed by God. There are times I think we can say without a doubt that God was the reason behind our "good luck."
Lisa,
Thank you for your well thought out opinion here. I plan to carry this thought a bit further in the next blog. Some Biblical things that really make me go hmmmm!.
Tom
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