Statistically Speaking

A friend and I were recently chatting and something came up in the conversation about a statistic or the highly unlikely percentage that an event would happen and my response to her was “and that may be true, but remember if God intends for it to happen it will happen.” Which got me pondering, and I then came up with the conclusion that I would like to put forth that on the whole, statistics don’t really mean much if you are a Christian. In fact, I think statistics tend to take God out of the picture almost completely and this is quite an injustice to the character of God.

First of all, I’m wary of most statistics/polls anyway because I feel you could take any statistic and find 100 people to prove it true or 100 people to prove it false. How accurate is that “random” sample really?? But for the sake of this argument, we’re going to go ahead and say ok, even if most statistics are true…such as the following…

The chances of winning a lottery in which six numbers are drawn from 49 is 1 in 13,983,816. In a lottery in which seven numbers are drawn from 49, the odds of winning are 1 in 85,900,584

100 people a year choke to death on ball-point pens.

35,000 people in the U.S. will die from the flu annually.

9 out of 10 lightning strike victims survive!

A chance of a woman having twins is increased after the age of 35. About 1 in 27 women will give birth to twins after this age. After 50 the chances of having twins is 1 in 9.

A recent study at Harvard has shown that eating chocolate can actually help you live longer

A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans

Car accidents rise 10% during the first week of daylight savings time.

Every 45 seconds, a house catches on fire in the United States

More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes

In any given month, your chances of getting pregnant at age 30 are about 20%. At age 40, your chance of getting pregnant in any given month is just 5%.

( info from infertility.about.com, allfunandgames.com and einvestigator.com. I spot checked some of these but don’t sue me if some of these are inaccurate. See my previous paragraph)

But in the face of all of this information, I would like to say God is Sovereign.

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.

But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the people of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.

He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries.

The lot is cast into the lap but its every decision is from the Lord.

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.

If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

(Scripture references: Rom. 11:36, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 33:10, Psalm 135:7, Prov. 16:33, Matthew 10:29, Matthew 17:20)

God is Sovereign….over the weather, the animals, the lottery, the presidents, and every single thing and person you can think of. If His will ordains you do or don’t get a disease or get pregnant or win the lottery, you can claim the most favorable statistic in the world and it won’t matter because God doesn’t care about statistics, He cares about His glory. And what better way to show how big our God is than to have the “50 point favorite” football team LOSE to the “underdog”. Or the 45 year old woman of faith have a healthy baby. Or the man dying of “terminal” cancer to have a full recovery. These displays of God’s hand happen EVERYday. So I just wanted to write an encouragement that wherever you are in life, if statistics or majorities or "realities" are staring you in the face and have you down, you have access to a God who is bigger than any and all of that. The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much (James 5:16). In a world where supposedly 1 in 2 marriages end in divorce, let’s be a generation that refuses to succumb to that statistic. Let’s fight for better marriages and better families. Let’s live by FAITH and see what God will do… instead of giving up the battle because the “facts” or the “stats” are against us. If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. That’s God’s promise to us, 2 Chronicles 7:14. And if you end up on the other end of that statistic, one of the rare cases of disease or disaster or death by ball-point pen…know that it has been filtered by God’s holy hands. God gives and takes away. This is a whole other topic for another day but for now, I hope it helps to be reminded that God is in control, He never sleeps, He never forgets and He will never forsake you.

So all this to say, I would argue that the majority of statistics might be interesting and/or something to consider, but on the whole not by any means an indicator of fate if you are a Christian (or even if you’re not). However, during my research for this topic I did come across some rather funny and amazing “statistics” and I thought I would throw in a couple here for your reading enjoyment J Have a great week!

A survey reported that 12% of Americans think that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife

Americans eat nearly 100 acres of pizza every day - that's approximately 350 slices per second

First-cousin marriages are legal in Utah, so long as both parties are 65 or older!

Forty percent of Americans have never visited a dentist

'The 7-Eleven Extreme Gulp is 50% bigger than the volume of the human stomach