The odds are stacked in your favor.

The odds of you arriving on this planet in tact—armed with a body, mind, and heart capable of spiritual expression—were a trillion-to-one. The union of a human egg and sperm gave you the privilege and responsibility of walking on this planet, of sharing in creative action with billions of other products of the same union, in this little corner of our celestial neighborhood.

This remarkable fusion formed the zygote cell, the fertilized egg, that became you. The more you dig into the process, the more you see how intricate and delicate the processes are that lead to the generation of a new human being. You are the result of a stunningly complex process that came to fruition.

Imagine…all that just to get you here! You overcame staggering odds to arrive on this planet. You were victorious the moment you breathed the earth’s atmosphere into your lungs, ten seconds or so after leaving the womb. That first gasp, as the fluid from your lungs was expelled and as your central nervous system reacted to the sudden changes in temperature and environment, was nothing short of a miracle.

This miracle may have a “scientific” explanation, but that does not lessen the wonder of its occurrence. Approximately 385,000 new human beings take their first gasp each and every day and each one overcame incredible odds to get to that point. I did so 50 years ago and I’m still amazed, thankful, and a bit shocked that it happened.

You—however many days you’ve spent roaming this beautiful globe—will face certain odds today in the circumstances you meet. Sometimes the odds of making it through may seem slim, if not stacked heavily against you. You may feel impotent, hopeless, fearful in the face of those odds, but the fact of the matter is you have overcome far greater odds at least once in your lifetime.

The fact that you overcame the odds being so stacked against you once—even if that was your only victory until now (which I highly doubt)—means that you can overcome again. If you look back you’ll probably see numerous occasions where you said to yourself, “I can’t believe I survived that” or “It’s a miracle that I made it through.” Well, it probably was and there is no reason to convince yourself that are no more victories to come.

You have prevailed. You can prevail. You shall prevail. But you must let yourself prevail by being in position for the force of life within you to prevail.

Photo by Patricia Prudente on Unsplash