The Biggest Lottery

“We’ve come a long way to belong here” - Jason Mraz 

Looking around the world there is so much to be concerned about. The economy is in tatters, there’s a crisis in the Euro, civil wars are brewing, the terrorists could be anywhere and everywhere and even if we make it to old age, there may be no pension funds left. 

Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to worry about all the things we need to worry about. Actually though, all those are nothing compared to the real big worry, something so big it could mean the end of the world for all of us! 

What if I never get born? 

Yes that is a big one. You can’t imagine how much stress it gave me.

Just think about the incredible number of serendipitous events that had to occur just so that any one of us could be conceived? It kept me on edge of my seat for years. Would my parents make it to adulthood, would they ever meet, let alone like each other? 

That first date, would they both turn up, would they say the right things to each other, would they make a good impression? 

I only had one chance of entering into this world, everything depended on that moment.

Even after conception, an uncountable number of processes had to operate perfectly so we could grow into human beings and eventually be born. The stress of it all was nearly too much for me. If that wasn’t enough, I had to go through the same thing worrying if my parents would even be born, and their parents before them and on and on... 

Thankfully, one day I was finally born in this amazing world and all my worries were over, at least so I thought. I’d never even imagined all the problems I’d have to worry about when I finally got here. 

I agree that’s a bit of strange way of thinking about things, but just imagine if we really did have to worry about being born. 

That would be one hell of a stressful time. I doubt any of us could cope with the tension. The fact that we exist at all is an absolute miracle. 

We think winning the lottery is unlikely, well by existing at all we have won the biggest lottery in the universe, yet we worry about the falling value of our investments, isn’t it ironic?

There’s a song by Jason Mraz that says “we’ve come a long way to belong here” and that’s so true. We have come such a long way, every one of our ancestors has contributed to our story, we are lucky beyond comprehension to be alive right here, right now. 

We step outside and it starts to rain, we trip over and twist an ankle, we get stuck in traffic and we think we are so unlucky. 

Really we are more lucky than we can possible imagine!

So when I think of all these things, how far we have come to belong here, I realise how important it is to cherish each moment. 

The things we tend to worry about are so small compared to what we’ve already overcome just to be here, just to exist. We won’t be here forever, while we are here, let’s celebrate winning the biggest lottery there is!




*The original song can be found here