Adventures in Odyssey Home Page

Bad Luck

Album: Gold Audio 08: Beyond Expectations

Episode: 107

Lesson/Theme: Superstitions.

Bible Verse: Exodus 20:3

Characters: Bernard

Writer: Paul McCusker

Sound Designer: Dave Arnold

Original Air Date: March 10, 1990

Last Air Date: May 29, 2008

Description:
Robyn Jacobs is worried. She's received a chain letter telling her that if she breaks the chain, she'll have all sorts of bad luck. Her friend Jessie strongly advises Robyn to do what the letter says, but Robyn isn't convinced it has any magical power. She tears up the letter. Jessie is horrified, completely convinced that Robyn will be plagued with bad luck. Robyn scoffs-until she starts experiencing several small disasters. First, she walks under Bernard Walton's ladder, and his bucket falls on her, soaking her to the skin. Then, while searching the medicine cabinet for an aspirin, Robyn slams the cabinet door, breaking the mirror. At lunch the next day, she knocks over a salt shaker, spilling its contents. Quadruple bad luck! Jessie is so concerned for her friend, she gives her own good luck charm to Robyn-a rabbit's foot. But it doesn't work, because Robyn ends up being late for an important meeting at the library. On the way, she tries rubbing the rabbit's foot, and she nearly hits a car with her bike and plows into a tree. Jessie tells Robyn she has to get that letter back. Robyn is finally convinced. She races back to Whit's End, where she threw away the letter, and searches through the trash dump for it. Bernard Walton finds her there, and he and Officer Winger take her home. When Robyn's feeling better, her dad has a serious talk with her about the folly of believing in silly superstitions. In the end, Robyn learns why it's always better to trust in the Lord.

Questions:
Did Robyn do the right thing when she tore up the letter? Why do you think she had such a bad day after she got rid of the chain letter? Is it wrong to believe in luck? Explain your answer. What does the Bible say about luck?