Whatever your lane, life can feel like a daily workout. We rise, we train and fight till we ache. We push through the pain-barrier of every setback, disappointment, and defeat. The fight to please others, the fight against our fears and our weaknesses can feel relentless. Some of us face a daily sparring session with our own thoughts and doubts, and even in seasons where we feel like winners, we continue striving, determined to beat our personal best. We compare ourselves to others and the struggle can feel so very, very real to measure up.
So why are we in constant competition mode? Why does life feel like a boxing ring, where we are forced to go round after round in the pursuit of our own happiness? Perhaps this is a world that sells us a dream whilst preparing us to fall short because the odds and stats are stacked against us.
Everything important to us can be reduced to a game of odds. We live under a cloud of numbers, which tell us how likely we are to succeed in education, employment, and relationship. We are taught the likelihood of being infected with a disease, and what our survival chances will be if we are afflicted. Should we battle addiction or mental health issues, we are goaded by our chances of recovery and relapse. We enter marriage knowing that our odds of divorce are more than 40%. Some of us are told we will never have children, or that our chances are minimal. And if the unthinkable occurs and the baby has problems, the infant begins their own battle with numbers, before they can even count.
The war of odds doesn’t stop at birth, health, love, or family either. Our core identity is threatened by a foreboding that we might be at a disadvantage before we begin. Variables like gender, colour, geography, and economic status are held over us omens. The odds taunt us with being more or less likely to fail in our pursuits, without considering the nuances and infinite variables that make us who we are.
For the most part, odds are little more than a blind-folded critique of a world-class painting. They give us an idea of what has happened before but they don’t tell us our future. They are Historians, not prophets. As believers in God’s promises, stats leave no room for the most important thing of all, God’s plan, sovereignty, and call upon our lives.
When God places a calling on our lives, the odds become irrelevant. What he calls us to do, He equips us for. Where God sends us, He goes before us, paving the way with supernatural favour. Nothing and no one can derail God’s plan for you, or nullify the promises he has made over your life. There is no economic or geographical challenge too great for him. There is no medical hurdle or cultural barrier that intimidates Him. If your life is a story, He holds the pen.
You may have been told, even by fellow believers that your odds of failure or disadvantage are overwhelming. The odds may be stacked against your family, health, or dreams. But when God told a barren woman that she would conceive, did she not bear a son? When God told an unarmored shepherd he would bring down a giant, did the giant not fall? Do we not believe in a God who speaks to the elements and is obeyed? The odds quake in the presence of our risen saviour, who made a mockery of them by His life, death, and resurrection. That resurrection power is available within you as a child of God. Don’t look at the numbers, look at your Father. Look at the master of the universe who is the Word and has the final word in your situation!
‘I believe my God is able to make ANY mountain move,
To reach and pull me through.
I am yours, and you are faithful
No matter where I am, I’m in your hands and I will stand…
Against The Odds’