Wednesday, August 5, 2009

What Are The Odds?

In the math course I am teaching at Wallace College, we are learning about probability and odds of various things happening. I was shocked to learn the following fact: A person's odds of living any given year is always greater than their chance of dying, until they reach 117 years old! In other words, until we reach the age of 117, we have a better chance of living than dying. At age 40, the probability of the average person dying that year is only .5%...meaning that there is about a 99.5% chance they will not die that year. Now compare this probability to that of winning the current Florida Lottery. The chance of you winning the Florida Lottery is 23,000 times less than your chance of dying at age 40! You and I are not going to win that lottery. Yes, someone will, but it will not be us.

I guess you can tell it is Shark Week on The Discovery Channel. I keep eluding to these creatures this week in my devotions. Although more people die every year from falling coconuts than from shark attacks, would that make you feel any better if you were in the water with a 16-foot, 4000 pound Great White? If you knew there was a chance, no matter how slight it may be, that there was a huge Great White along the beach, would you still go in? Although your chance of dying at age 40 is less than 1%, do you still carry life insurance? So then why do people not believe in God, although there is a chance He is real and could come back to earth this year? I do not know what the odds are that He will come back this year. I doubt there is any clear way to calculate that. But I am not taking any chances. We carry life insurance. So why don't we also carry Everlasting Life insurance? The odds could be 10 billion to one, but since "carrying" His everlasting Life insurance does not cost me anything, and everlasting is forever, why would I even think about taking a chance on it?

Jesus said in John 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life."

Father, thank you for Jesus. Please help us to get the Good News about Him out to everybody, before it is too late. In Jesus name, Amen.

1 comment:

  1. This is a great post!!! I haven't ever even thought of this before so it's good to learn something. Your blog blesses me, thought you should know! Keep up the good work!! Blessings to you!!!