{"id":29423,"date":"2022-11-06T20:06:37","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T04:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29423"},"modified":"2022-11-06T20:06:37","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T04:06:37","slug":"the-value-of-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-value-of-one\/","title":{"rendered":"The Value of One"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a well-known story that is told of a little boy (or little girl, according to the adaption of the story) who was walking along a vast beach, throwing starfish back into the ocean. Many starfish populated the beach because the tide had washed them up onto the shore. An old man approaches the boy and asks him, \u201cBut there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I\u2019m afraid you won\u2019t really be able to make much of a difference.\u201d The boy responds by bending down and throwing another single starfish into the ocean and says, \u201cIt made a difference to that one!\u201d This story is a great reminder how an evaluation of numbers can change one\u2019s perspective. Tom Chivers and David Chivers help readers of their book<\/span>, How to Read Numbers<\/span><\/i>, evaluate the statistical data that is shared in the media and in politics with a different lens. Their premise is that \u201cwe need to understand how numbers are made, how they are used and how they can go wrong, because otherwise we\u2019ll make bad decisions as individuals and as a society.\u201d\u00a0 [1]<\/span><\/p>\n

In chapter 9, Chivers shares a story about Donald Trump who stated in 2018 that \u201c300 people are murdered by undocumented immigrants in the United States every year.\u201d [2] Chivers questions if this is a large number. The argument continues with findings that \u201cin Texas, undocumented immigrants are less likely to be murderers then the average citizen, \u2018legal\u2019 or \u2018documented\u2019 migrants committed about one murder per 100,000 people.\u201d [3] The authors are making the point that Trump should not have attributed 300 murders to illegal immigrants. The authors use statistical data from Texas but not the United States.\u00a0 Shouldn’t the numbers represent the United States as the common denominator? Whether the argument is for illegal immigrants committing homicides or not, the author misses the point. Isn\u2019t the main issue that people have been murdered?\u00a0 Numbers aside, these are homicides, \u201c17,250 total in the US in 2016\u201d according to the FBI. [4] Killing is the problem. Numbers are inescapable for larger scale social decisions, and we must use them well, but also recognize their limited usefulness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at how Jesus reads numbers. In Matthew 18 Jesus tells the story of the lost sheep and the shepherd who will leave the flock of ninety-nine to find the one. Numbers in this story illustrate a point that Jesus is wanting to make.\u00a0 We find Jesus tapping into the power numbers to communicate. \u201cWe all use numbers, consciously or otherwise, to help us navigate the world.\u201d [5]<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 18:12 \u201cWhat do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? v.13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. v. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus appeals to the listeners he is addressing by asking \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d At the outset of the story, he wants his listeners to think critically for themselves. The hundred sheep represent those who are among those Jesus would call His own. Each \u201csheep\u201d is precious in God\u2019s estimation. Most people would think that the numbers are large enough for the one sheep to be left to his own demise. Jesus wants to illustrate how one sheep has immeasurable worth to him and is worthy of leaving the other sheep in a potentially harmful position, looking for the one. Jesus wants these numbers to influence how we think and act in view of the value God would have towards one individual, one sheep. \u201cWhen is a number a big number? I agree with the authors when they state: \u201cWhen is a number a big number? There is no such thing really. Or rather, the bigness or otherwise of a number depends entirely on its context.\u201d\u00a0 [6]<\/span><\/p>\n

My personal learning from the lessons that Jesus taught and the book<\/span> How to Read Numbers<\/span><\/i> can be applied to the work I do in my private practice. I have contracted with the county to provide services to those who have been Victims of Crimes. Often, this population is difficult to work with as they do not personally pay for their services. Ownership in the counseling process is lessened due to no financial investment on their part. Also, the fee for their services is less than my private practice fee. But I love these clients. I will continue to work with them as I know that they are much like the starfish on the shore or like the one lost sheep. They might be ONE- which is a small number, but in God\u2019s eyes they have inestimable worth.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[1] Tom Chivers and David Chivers, How to Read Numbers,2021, p.3<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Ibid. p.65<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] ibid. p.66<\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Ibid. p.65<\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Ibid. p.3<\/span><\/p>\n

[6] Ibid. p.63<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a well-known story that is told of a little boy (or little girl, according to the adaption of the story) who was walking along a vast beach, throwing starfish back into the ocean. Many starfish populated the beach because the tide had washed them up onto the shore. An old man approaches the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2085,2436],"class_list":["post-29423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-howtoreadnumbers","tag-matthew-18","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29424,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29423\/revisions\/29424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}