Strangely Glad for the Patriots

A week ago, partially because of having a mind-numbing flu virus, I had forgotten the Superbowl existed and I had absolutely no idea who would be starring in this ultimate playoff.  It's pretty safe to say I didn't have a true "dog in the fight" or "horse in the race."

But as the game came to an end last night, I felt strangely thankful.  It wasn't because I was siding with the underdog.  It wasn't because I am secretly a Patriots fan if the Broncos aren't playing.  It wasn't because a sworn enemy of mine was deeply infatuated with the Seahawks and I wanted to feel avenged in his/her misery.  Truth be told, the Patriots have won enough championships lately, their players have often been involved in sketchy activities, and the whole deflated ball issue, while a little far-fetched, could have some truth to it.

I was happy because it wasn't supposed to happen (which is different from them being the underdog).  It has everything to do with how smart we believe we are becoming in the world.  It was announced last week before the game that a new project had been completed promising capability to predict the Superbowl outcome.  Hundreds of thousands of statistics, including player performance, time of day, location of game, weather, player health, past team performances in various scenarios, pre-game drama, coaching performances, projected fan composition, etc. were plugged into a complex set of algorithms.  The outcome, according to the statistics, was that regardless of how many played-out hypothetical game scenarios, the Seahawks were likely to be victorious 60% of the time.

Am I happy just because the geniuses got it wrong?  Yes, but ultimately no.  It's bigger than that.

In a world where we truly believe there is increasing power behind the monstrous amounts of information we can gather and compute, we become information/statistic junkies and begin to put our security more and more in its lap.

The ultimate outcome?

We're killing the human and the Holy Spirit.  Do we really think either care anything about data, statistics, and likely outcomes?  Since day one God has been proving them to be a farce.

We've created a new power drug:  an anti-anxiety serum concocted of data promising to give us more control over the unknown.

The problem with dependency-forming drugs is we scarcely know how to function in our world without them.  And given the fact we haven't yet learned to calculate the outcome of EVERY step we take in our lives, our general ANXIETY only increases.  Controlled environments simply reinforce our inability to respond in creative, non-anxious ways outside of their protection.

The truth is, we still live in a world that will always be far more unpredictable than predictable.  We should, therefore, quit treating our lives and the outcomes of our faith and efforts as mere statistics.  When a doctor says a person has a 30% chance of surviving cancer, forget the statistics.  When we plan the next several days of our lives because Accuweather says it is 90% likely to be snowy, don't live by it.  

Live instead by God's Spirit and the human spirit henceforth.  Live instead by what is wanted and hoped for, not what is likely or predicted.  Live here instead and LIVE.

More to come!

Jason <><