A Word About Luck

First a quick update: I am going to be seen on Wednesday (5/3) at City of Hope. For those of you out-of-towners, City of Hope is a research hospital that specializes in cancer, including cutting-edge and experimental treatments. It is also one of the state's top brain tumor centers. This is why I had to have a pre-appointment interview, because only patients with applicable illnesses are seen there. When I first called, the screener told me that she didn't think they treated benign tumors. I had a hunch that this was incorrect because one of the doctors in the Blue Cross network that I have become interested in is Benham Badie, a neurosurgeon who was recently made director of neurosurgery at City of Hope, and who has put a lot of energy in his career into the research and treatment of meningiomas, the exact kind of tumor I have.

Not only was I accepted for a pre-admission interview and consultation with a surgeon, but when we received the paperwork for our visit, we found that we would be seeing Dr. Badie! This is very exciting--if Dr. Badie is the doctor who will perform my surgery, I will be in very capable hands indeed. God is great!

Now a word about luck. In this week's ESPN The Magazine (yes, I am a sports news junkie!), one columnist dared to suggest that Derek Jeter is not really clutch, but only lucky. If you know me, you understand what blasphemy I consider this to be! Dan Le Batard writes, "Derek Jeter is not clutch. This is meant as neither indictment nor blasphemy. It is explanatory, not accusatory. But it runs the risk of being dismissed as hating because Jeter is a cathedral, and worship tends to cloud fanatics, faith obstructing facts."

He goes on to write, "We love intangibles. They are the bedrock of all faith, explanations for the inexplicable. This is how it is with worship. If you want to believe, your eyes will see the face of God in a cheese sandwich." To be fair, Le Batard makes a pretty good argument using stats to show that Jeter is the same hitter in the playoffs as he is in the regular season, but that he just gets his hits at moments that make them seem larger than they are. And, he says, Jeter is so well-loved by Yankees fans that his moments of defeat are quickly forgotten. He writes, "the moments that reaffirm belief, we keep. The ones that don't, we discard."

I can let go of his disbelief in the mystique of the Captain, but his demeaning remarks against people of faith? I am truly offended. I cannot count the number of times in the last two months that I have heard the words, "You are really lucky!" Two in particular come to mind. While being seen by Dr. Anker, the first neurosurgeon we consulted with, Steve asked him about my chances with this kind of tumor. His response was, "You are really lucky. When it comes to brain tumors, you got the very best kind." A second instance was during my hospitalization when, after the strain of bacteria in my spinal fluid was identified, one of my doctors said, "You are really lucky. Any other type of bacteria, and I fear you would not have survived."

But is it luck? Hardly. I don't believe in luck. I believe in a God who is in control of every circumstance in my life. For reasons I have not completely figured out yet, I have a tumor that will require brain surgery for removal. For some reason, I spent a week in the hospital, extremely ill but very much alive. Why? I don't know yet. But my survival is not luck. It is part of the plan God has for my life, the plan he has had since before I was born. And because he has promised that he is working out everything in my life for good, I can trust in his plan. It will be for the best. And it has nothing to do with luck.