Is life governed by chance?

If we look into ourselves and want to know our innermost thoughts, one of the possible questions may: Is life governed by chance? Its a difficult question to answer out rightly.

Psychologists define serendipity as "The gift of obtaining agreeable but unsought things". It implies that people do get desired things and fortunate events without their putting in efforts. Or is it that they have indeed put efforts in the past, and are reaping the results now?

Sometimes, the unexpected, the life-changing (for good or bad) event does occur. Is it to say that a man remains impoverished and unfortunate due to chance or is it due to his own errors of omission and commission? Do sad events occur in a family due to chance or due to some overlooked factor?

Lets face it, the rationalist finds it difficult to accept a theory of life governed by chance. For him, an explanation is needed for each and every event that occurs in the realm of physics, chemistry, life science, political science, sociology and spirituality. But may we not be at fault that we seek an explanation within the scope of a narrow domain instead of looking at the entire picture?

Probably, the best answer would be, things do happen by chance, but without our efforts we should expect nothing favourable to happen to us.