What are the Odds?
I guess the answer depends on how the question is framed.
What are the odds I will win a jackpot? Quite low due to a number of variables I do not control and one I do.
I do not control the size of the number I must guess to win. The larger the number the lower my odds. Also I do not control the size of the pot nor the number of other players, although those two variable are related to each other. This is because every player pays to play which then grows the potential winnings. The one variable I do control is the choice whether or not to play.
Now let’s look at the odds another way. What are the odds that if I stand in the rain without an umbrella and look up that a rain drop will hit my nose? Odds are excellent. It would be odd if this didn’t occur assuming a decent rainfall. This is looking at the numbers from the other side. The odds are excellent someone eventually will win the lottery. The odds are also outstanding that the vast majority of participants will not. Most raindrops will not hit my nose, but a few always will.
What’s my point?
Living life by attempting to predict best outcomes is a silly business because you only have one life.
In some very special ways you are unique from all others on the planet. You were born when you were supposed to be and, from God’s perspective, you will die exactly when it is set that you will. Being in time and living through it is quite different from being outside it where God is. It is a matter of perspective whether or not something beats all the odds. God is never surprised. We are constantly.
Now I bet you have read the odds of someone becoming a great something, like a writer, actor, billionaire, you-name-it. We are told the chances of any of these things happening is an extraordinarily large number to one. This discourages a lot of people, and perhaps this is a good and useful thing. It enables them to keep looking for that thing they have been designed and called to do. This will then leave a few who will be drawn toward the quest to achieve something extraordinary in whatever challenging area of life they seem to have been drawn to.
And do you know what?
They will achieve great things, either that very goal they set out to achieve, something equivalent, or something even greater because they decided to start and never quit, no matter what. You see, that’s the part missed when we try to calculate odds. We generally don’t factor in stubbornness.
So what are the chances you will do something great?
Well, if you believe God is calling you into this particular arena and you are stubborn enough that you will not give up no matter what, then I would say the deck is stacked in your favor.
Go get ‘em tiger!