Call me crazy, but because today is St. Patrick’s Day, I’ve rewritten the chorus of a famous Tina Turner song. (I know, I know. She is not the first image that comes to mind on this day.) I can almost hear her singing to the tune of “What’s Love Got to Do with It“:

What’s luck got to do with it, got to do with it? What’s luck but a second rate pretender?

So what DOES luck have to do with today? Did St. Patrick have a life of luck? Is that why Stuff Marts everywhere are filled with everything imaginable—embroidered, printed or painted—with “Lucky” sentiments or sporting “lucky” four leaf clovers?

No. Luck was not part of the life story of the man celebrated today. In fact, some may say St. Patrick was extremely unlucky. 

At age 16, while living the good life of an upper class family in Britain, he was kidnapped, forcibly removed from his home, his country, his privilege and carted off across the sea to a land of snakes and superstition to be enslaved as a shepherd for six years.

Not exactly what I would call lucky.

Instead, St. Patrick should be remembered as a man of faith—faith that he found while he was in captivity. Faith that led him to return later to the place where he had escaped from captivity—to spread the Good News.

Recently, in the process of writing a devotion for my Community Bible Study, I reflected on the promises of God from Psalm 91, specifically these two verses:

“Because he loves me, says the LORD, I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.” Psalm 91:14-15

I called it Close Calls. Closer God.

Some might say I was lucky. I might have said that, too. But I see things differently now.  And “even if” those close calls had resulted in grave injury, dreadful life experiences or death, I still conclude that God keeps those specific promises of Psalm 91:14-15. You can read “Close Calls. Closer God” here.

Better yet, take a look at the testimonies of Joni Eareckson Tada, Elisabeth Elliot and Corrie Ten Boom. All could confidently say that their “bad luck” was no match for God’s love.

Read the story of Margo Naranjo whose family live with the impact of her injuries daily—yet are confident that God is good and has indeed rescued her, protected her, and one day will deliver and honor her.

Do you have faith that God is “Large and In Charge” of all things—even the “unlucky” circumstances of our lives?

Do you feel more loved by God when things turn out well and less loved by God when things go terribly wrong? Do you know how you can know that God is good and how He proved His love for every one of us? Yes. Every. Single. One.

Are you putting your hope in luck, OR in your own good works OR in the unconditional, sacrificial love that God exhibited in Jesus?

I will trust in Jesus over trusting in my own goodness to get me over the finish line.

I’ll take God’s love over being “lucky” any day of the week.

Especially today, when St. Patrick’s story (and the stories of the aforementioned saints) had nothing to do with good luck or bad luck—but had everything to do with love.

Listen: Jesus Loves You by Sanctus Real:

Listen: Lavish by Big Daddy Weave:

Watch Joni Eareckson Tada tell her story:

Read The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom  

Watch this stage adaptation of The Hiding Place:

Watch a compilation of Elisabeth Elliot’s most noteworthy quotes:

Read Becoming Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn

Read The Prayer of St. Patrick. It reminds us of the work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (Legend has it that St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three leafed clover, to explain the Trinity.) Think about what it means to say, “Christ before me; Christ beside me; Christ behind me; Christ inside me!” Contemplate how you have experienced Christ before, beside, behind or inside you.

Read: John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Ephesians 2:4-5 – “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” 1 John 4:19 – “We love because he first loved us.” John 15:13 – “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” 1 John 3:1 – “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” Jeremiah 31:3 – “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Zephaniah 3:17 – “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” Psalm 86:15 – “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Romans 8:35 – “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Romans 8:37-39 – “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”