The 70 Percent Pass Mark

Most of our days, most of the time—disregarding times of grief—are characterised by this notional 70 percent pass mark i.e. seven days in ten we fall asleep at night either satisfied generally with life right up to feeling successful. These are our brighter days.

These days we can give life a ‘pass mark.’

This, of course, leaves the reality that three in ten of our total days we’ll feel anything from ambivalence to experiencing outright disaster at a soul level. In other words, these are days we’d prefer not to write home about, forget for the time or otherwise have erased altogether.

The notional 70 percent pass mark—though it isn’t the perfect number, as a fact—is a given; it’s a fact of life. It represents how life is for all of us, beyond carte blanche.

The positive challenge in store for us—to the thriving engorgement of our lives—is to enjoy more of the ‘pass’ days and to try to not let our ‘blah’ days or our ‘days of disaster’ overwhelm us.

‘Unlucky Days’

Unlucky days (which is just a turn-of-phrase i.e. it’s not used to inflame people) are a reality for us all; this is because life is very much a mystery—only God knows truly why some days just don’t work out for us.

Many Christians don’t subscribe to ‘luck,’ but the reality is life is often inexplicable. We can understand, to some extent at least, why many people run after the horoscopes etc.

(We should all know, of course, that horoscopes, lucky numbers and Tarot card reading etc., are common idolatry—the placing of faith in anything other than the one and only living God. These are based in what we call ‘bad faith’ or faith not based in real spiritual truth—for instance, the truth of virtue, per Christianity.)

‘Unlucky days’ are not advocating for a moment that God’s not in control. On the contrary, we need to simply guard—in faith—that better times will soon return; and these too will pass.

We do not control life; God does. The easier we accept this fact the better our lives become.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.