Reflections on Brokenness Post 2 – “I’ve Forgotten 87% of the Statistics I’ve Heard and I Believe Very Little of the Remaining 13%”

Statistics. Has there have been a more manipulative and misunderstood tool than statistics? I am likely upsetting 79% of you math types and approximately 21% of your literature types are smiling. Likely 39% of you will not make it to the end of the post (and you should because it’s a decent point) (1% have decided to continue reading. Blessed are you).

Likely, you have heard that statistic that says, “67% of all statistics are made up.” I think I laugh at that 99% of the time.

Stats are used for everything, on the news, in books of every kind, in doctor’s offices, in sports bars and in sermons. They are used to inform our decision-making, usually to sell us something, to create fear (which usually results in the sale of something), to create a sense of security, to manipulate, to inform and usually to help us but not always. In every case I can think of, we use statistics as a means of convincing. I do this, you do this, this is being done. If I played up the victim card a little bit here, I’d say we are being “statistically assaulted” but I fear that is insensitive to actual victims. More on that soon.

I am exhausted, statistically speaking. If you know me personally, you know that I suspicious of the the claims of those that claim to be completely objective and “black and white”. I wish I could go back in time and thank the person who first told me to take everything with a grain of salt. That turned out to be great advice in staying sane in a culture that bombards one another with numbers.

Statistics can create a false sense of truth. Statistics can be used for evil, can be used for good, again they are tools. Of course, they have become important tools to us here in the West and to modern types worldwide. I could go on a bit more on how the Enlightenment and Modernity drank too much of the empirical Kool-Aid but I am not Anti-Enlightenment and grateful for certain gifts of the modern age (though I am not a fan of Kool-Aid – too much sugar really).

Now I am not really anti-statistics. Whether it be the probabilities concerning when to change the oil in my car or the stats that are suddenly extremely relevant when in a doctor’s office, I’d be a fool to not realize that my life revolves around certain possibilities and the fruit of statistical analysis.

But here’s what I’ve realized about myself. Given my aversion to stats, I’ve forgotten some important ones. Not literally forgotten mind you, just behaviorally forgotten. I can tell you without Googling that 3 billion people on our planet live on less than $3 a day. I can tell you that one dollar provides clean water for one person for one year in certain parts of Africa where clean water is scarce. I can tell you that 3 million people die of AIDS per year. About the same number gets trafficked each year. These numbers would be higher but sadly people keep dying.

Granted, these numbers are not exact, I know different variations exist. Some figures may be out-dated and I’ll be the first to say they have an agenda, they tell a story. Like all statistics, these numbers represent something. In this case, they represent people – and they are among the broken and the forgotten.

These numbers certainly have an agenda with me. These are the global issue I am most concerned about. And these numbers have changed what I do in Jesus’ name. I’ll be the first to say that one of the great struggles/distractions/challenges with suburban life is that seeming isolation that can be created from these numbers. I confess that this sometimes gets the best of me, but I find that involvement in these issues, even from here in the suburbs, contribute to the great work that is needed.

We are called to live faithfully to our callings and our contexts and this is a good thing. This is perhaps one of the motivations I find in Jesus’ words in taking up the cross daily. It’s on the cross that Jesus dies for the broken and for the forgotten, for all of us. It’s on the cross that Jesus demonstrates humility, sacrifice and love. It’s when we look at the cross of Christ that we realize we can follow this example.

Whether it be alms-giving, volunteering time, creating awareness, and/or a host of countless decisions, this Lent, let’s be faithful with the statistics we’ve subscribed to. The numbers that have mattered to us. The figures that God has called us to join Him in His redemption of all things.