He Has No Margin of Error

Formula for Margin of Error

Before moving to North Carolina to finish graduate study, I lived in Atlanta and attended an HBCU. It was the 90s before erebody flocked to the A and I was living what I thought to be “my best life.” I lived on campus in my role and I was pursuing a masters degree. I worked during the day and attended classes in the late afternoon and early evening. Soon thereafter, we hit the streets and immersed ourselves in everything “Hotlanta” had to offer. I studied hard, but statistics was the bane of my existence. I completed one semester of the course and my professor refused to give me anything less than an incomplete and an invitation to retake the course. I returned the next semester, to the same class, in the same room, with the same professor, this time earning a B to replace the imcomplete. Glory! Shortly thereafter, I transferred to a school in North Carolina. During a review with my advisor, a requirement to take Stats was made. I rejected the extension. I declared, “I’ve already completed Stats.” She responded, “Yes, but with a failed grade.” I responded, “That’s wrong!” I immediately called my former institution, only to learn that my former professor passed away - but not before changing my incomplete to a B. While I was saddened to hear of his transition, I was devastated at the thought of retaking a Stats course for the third time.

With the election season upon us, each time I’ve heard “margin of error” I experienced a bit of PTSD. I’m reminded of feeling inadequate; feeling underprepared; feeling confused, frustrated and a sense of failure. In the end, I passed Stats. But perhaps you’ve experienced similar emotions for other aspects of life. I want to remind you that in the end, this too shall pass as well. While polsters and people are enamored with candidate “margin of error,” we may ultimately take confidence in God’s ability to navigate us through every rough terrain we are presented. There is no variability in His faithfulness! He won at Calvary, so we needn’t worry about our victory ever being too close too call! Man can make estimates, but God specializes in absolutes. And while we may have different expectations for “Election Tuesday” we may be grateful that God will still be on the throne with every day that ends in “y.” And….whatever we believe to be true as a result, we know that He has no margin of error. Hebrews 13:5-7 echoes, “For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear.” I will not fear Tuesday. I will not fear post Tuesday. I will not fear Statistics. For the Lord is with us and in Him there is no shadow of turning. There is no deviation in His standard. He is the mean, the mode and the median. The correlation of Calvary and His love for us will forever imprint as significance on our lives. He is the continuous variable and for that we give thanks!