God talk

"How did you find you way round the traffic jam?"Paul asked.

I was delivering my daughter to summer camp and I was chatting with the old friend who was running it. We'd been delayed and had to find a route down country lanes to get round the a jam on the M4.

"More by luck than judgement" I replied… and instantly checked myself.

I had found my way more by luck than my own intelligence. Not knowing quite where to go, I took a guess at a crossroads and it turned out to be right. But the phrase reflects a worldview where God is absent. It was just "luck". Whereas the Bible tells us that our sovereign God is intimately involved in our world, and that the providence of God is at work even in what we might think are irrelevant details.

The phrase not only reflects it, but reinforces it. And by using it I had missed an opportunity to encourage a brother, or make known to an unbeliever, that there is more to the world than luck and blind chance - that there is a loving God at work in their life.

"We've got to find a better way of saying that," I said. By the time my daughter had been installed and said her untearful farewell, we had thought of two:

"More by grace than graft"

"More by grace than gumption"

If you've a better alternative version, let us know. And if you are looking for more "Christian" versions of other popular phrases or sayings, post the question and we'll try and think of an answer.