Why and How I Gamble

The odds of your walk­ing across the street are pretty good if you are pay­ing atten­tion. If you are day­dream­ing the odds of get­ting killed doing that will go up. You take the chance any­way. You are gam­bling with your life. You do it each and every time that you drive a car (or even just ride in one). Solomon said that “time and chance hap­pen to all.” The genet­ics that made your body were a bit of a gam­ble too. In fact, I have yet to find any­thing on this planet that is not some­how con­nected to the math­e­mat­i­cal real­i­ties of probability.

Every now and then I buy a lot­tery ticket. Half of my dol­lar will even­tu­ally go for taxes (and pay­ing taxes is of course the new cool). The other half dol­lar goes for var­i­ous costs but puts me in a very remote pos­si­bil­ity to become mate­ri­ally rich beyond my wildest dreams. One chance that is almost infi­nitely remote is bet­ter than no chance at all by an equally infi­nite mar­gin (do the math). The fan­tasy alone is worth a buck or two.

Three times in my life I have had to bet on the out­come of surg­eries that would pos­si­bly extend my life or end it abruptly (all major surg­eries are gam­bles on life and death). I took those chances. I am still here and in rel­a­tively good health. Those bets paid off. My edu­ca­tional ven­tures have all been gam­bles of one sort or another. I have lost a few times and won a cou­ple of times (five unfin­ished and two fin­ished degrees). The expe­ri­ences con­nected to those edu­ca­tional losses have proven to be gains in the long run.

I became a Chris­t­ian for a lot of rea­sons, but mostly because I know how to gam­ble intel­li­gently. I drove through Las Vegas one night and only bought a ham­burger. I know the odds there. Years ago, I ran a char­ity bingo out­fit that net­ted my orga­ni­za­tion over one-hundred-thousand dol­lars per year. The pro­ceeds went to sav­ing lives and pay­ing my bills. A few peo­ple went home each night a lit­tle richer and the rest had fun. It was a win-win deal for everyone.

In terms of my poten­tial des­tiny, I have accepted Pascal’s wager. I am going to bet this life on the next one. Why not? You are going to die any­way. Go for broke! Put all you are and all you have on one infi­nite pos­si­bil­ity. You can’t take it with you. Put it all on the line!

I bet this arti­cle sticks in your mind a bit. I also bet that you liked it, hated it, mis­un­der­stood it, or got the point (I have learned to cover my bets). Today is a gam­ble. You can­not con­trol all of the odds, but you can choose your approach. May I sug­gest Faith?