According to the National Fire Prevention Association the odds that any particular homeowner will have a fire in their home large enough to be reported to the fire department in their lifetime is about 1 in 4. Most of us don’t consider 25% to be very good odds that something will happen. Nonetheless, when it is something as serious as a house fire, we will take precautions even though the odds are not that likely that it will happen. We buy smoke detectors. We buy insurance. We try to protect ourselves even from a low-order probability when the consequences of not being prepared are so dire.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the odds that any one person will be in a serious traffic accident within their lifetime is 3 in 10. Again, we usually don’t consider that a 30% chance that something will happen is very high odds. However, once again, when we consider the seriousness of not being prepared against even this low-order probability, we are willing to spend time and money to prepare. We buy car insurance, we buy cars with advanced safety features, we wear seatbelts.
In Hebrews 9:27 the writer says, “And as it appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment”. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 Paul writes, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” The judgment is not a low-order probability, it is certain. What are you doing to prepare?