August 19, 2026

Sports has always been influenced by analytics, but in recent years, the amount of data studied and used is overwhelming. Part of this is driven by sports betting. But analytics alone do not provide the entire picture nor explain everything. This was the conclusion of a mathematician named Blaise Pascal, who died on this day in 1662. He famously said, “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.”

You can use analytics in your maps app to predict how long it will take you to drive somewhere. You can use data to try to predict what the price of gas is going to be, or how the economy is going to fare. But analytics is a poor master when you try to use it to explain everything, because it cannot.

Have you ever looked at a child and have been struck with their beauty?

Have you ever watched a sunrise or sunset and were silenced with awe?

Have you ever met someone and sensed immediately that you could trust this person, or were drawn to this person, or just felt a connection of your soul?

Math is important to understanding your budget, but useless in understanding your purpose in life. In fact, how many times do we see God’s plan purposefully defy math? What were the odds that Moses would successfully lead a hodgepodge mob of slaves out from the control of the most powerful empire in the world, without a fight? What were the odds that Gideon and 300 men would defeat the thousands of Midianites, that David would kill Goliath? The mathematical odds of all of the predictions of the birth of Christ happening are virtually impossible. But math alone cannot explain the deeper things of life.

What is the logic behind forgiving someone? What is the rational behind loving someone so much that you sacrifice your good, your comfort even your very life for their well being? What is the math behind having children? And yet, we choose to forgive, to love, to have children, and to sacrifice because there is something fundamentally deeper to life than analytics.

John 3:16 does not say, “Do the math.” Christ’s motivation for dying on the cross was not from statistical analysis. In fact, on so many levels, his love for us flies in the face of reason. It is this unreasonable love, this unmeasurable mercy, this incalculable grace that calls us to worship, to love, and to trust.

We are logical beings because God is logical and made us with the capacity to reason and to do math. But God is so much more. God is glorious, beautiful, awesome, majestic, infinite, and worth our love and complete trust. Reason and math have their place in our lives and are good servants in those places, but they cannot explain your purpose, nor define your joy. You were made for more, and as Pascal observed, you know it. You intuitively know it.

Grace and peace,

Bob

Sunday’s Text: Luke 22:1-6

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