When Luck Ran Out but Blessing Remains

UV3324/10000 When Luck Ran Out but Blessing Remains

And there was a young man named Eutychus(“lucky”) sitting on the window sill. He was sinking into a deep sleep, and as Paul kept on talking longer and longer, he was completely overcome by sleep and fell down from the third story; and he was picked up dead.

Acts 20 v 9

The young man was probably named like most of us in the hope that he would live up to his name of being lucky. But luck has no role in the life of a believer of Christ. Luck and Lucifer have three common starting letters. Nothing happens by chance. The young man should not have been sitting where he was not meant to be sitting – the window sill. He should have moved away as Paul was talking longer and longer and sensed his own attention was wandering. Indeed, we humans have a very short attention span when it comes to listening to the voice of God or the Word. The lesson to be learnt from the short episode of Eutychus is that we need to be careful, diligent, proactive in everything we do.

Eutychus ran out of luck and fell three storys to his death. But the Lord gave St Paul the faith that he could raise him back to life. Paul’s embrace gave the young man the equivalent of a spiritual CPR and he was revived. The natural often accompanies the supernatural but the supernatural has power to supercede the natural as the resurrection power of Jesus working through Paul awakened the young man as if from a deep sleep.

Luck is uncertain, faith is certain of the things we hope for in Christ. Luck deserts us when we need it the most while faith is our strength in times of distress and sorrow. We rely on the grace of Jesus to be blessed, not to be lucky. The young man’s spirit was willing but his flesh was weak and caused him to fall asleep. The disciples also were chided for falling asleep by the Master in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were admonished , “Watch and pray.” Praying or listening to the word requires us to be watchful, alert, vigilant, proactive, strong in the spirit. We need to focus on the locus- Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to augment our strength to overcome our natural instincts to slack off, to relax, to dose off, to be distracted.