Scientists say the odds of you being born are at least one in 400 trillion. So, first of all, Congratulations! You’re absolutely amazing!
I’m not exactly certain who these “scientists” are, but I found some really interesting things online. Now, Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet,” (I’ve always liked that joke), but some smart people have really tried to figure some of this stuff out.
You must start with some basic assumptions like the probability your great-great-great-great grandfather would meet your great-great-great-great grandmother, get married and start a family. That’s a lot of “greats” and I cut the number of “greats” way down for this letter.
In one article I read, which went through all sorts of probability details, Dr. Ali Binazzir came up with this analogy as published in “Are You a Miracle? On the Probability of Your Being Born”:
“It’s the probability of 2.5 million people getting together –about the population of San Diego– each to play a game of dice with trillion-sided dice. They each roll the dice –and they all come up the exact same number – say, 550,343,279,001.”
The Psalmist simply said, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (see Psalm 139).
It’s mind blowing to try and fathom the incredible odds that you or I even exist. Now, like Jeremiah, consider that “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” (Jeremiah 1:5).
So once again, Congratulations! You’re incredible! Amazingly, God was thinking of you and your long line of great-grandparents long before your parents ever thought of you.
I was thinking of these “probabilities” during a conversation with a friend who was asking about LOGOI and how I became the director of the ministry.
I started by explaining that LOGOI was started by my dad who traveled all over Latin America helping pastors and leaders. But then I had to take a step back and explain how my dad was born and raised in Cuba by missionary parents who met in Canada even though my grandfather was from Colorado. I then jumped around a few more steps and explained how my dad’s first wife died and how a few years later he thought about a girl he met in Bellingham, Washington, who was going to school in Chicago and thought my dad was nuts for thinking about her because they barely knew each other, but eventually agreed to marry him so I could be born in Costa Rica.
For some reason, my friend looked confused.
So, I summarized by saying, “Look, the truth is, I have no idea how I got here. It’s just God doing His amazing things using the most unlikely people possible. So here I am.”
And here you are, a part of the ministry of LOGOI helping impact the lives and ministries of over 30,000 national pastors and leaders spread across 54 countries! To just get a tiny glimpse at what God is doing with all the improbabilities, read the features on our National Missionaries of the Month.
The chances of you helping Edgard Alberto Velasquez Medina in Venezuela, or Wilson Eduardo Delgado in Colombia, or Analía Borraci Agostini in Argentina, or Yenni Romina Castillo in Ecuador, just to name a few, are probably statistically impossible.
I think God sits back and smiles.
Thank you for being a statistical improbability. We thank God for your faithful partnership! After all, you’re one in 400 trillion!
Forever,
P.S. Click on the image of Les Thompson teaching to help LOGOI equip God's people
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