Late last year, a website called “Birth Lottery” started circulating on social media. The idea is simple. You click a button, the globe spins, and it “assigns” you a country where you might have been born — based on global birth rates. Then it shows you statistics on life expectancy, income, education, and more. The message is meant to be sobering: Look how much of life depends on chance. At first glance, that may sound reasonable to many. After all, none of us chose where we were born. But the idea quietly smuggles in a much deeper assumption— one worth questioning.
Because what does “you” actually mean? If you were born in a different country, to different parents, with different genes and a different upbringing… you wouldn’t be *you* at all. You’d be an entirely different person. So calling this a “lottery” isn’t just misleading — it changes how we think about ourselves. It encourages the idea that life is mostly random, that outcomes are arbitrary, and that history, family, and inheritance don’t really matter. That we’re isolated individuals dropped into the world by accident.
But that’s not how human life actually works. None of us arrived here randomly. First and foremost, as products of a Christian heritage, we understand that you and I were born at this place and time in history with a unique purpose and identity, fashioned in the image of our Creator. But even from an earthly perspective, we exist because of countless decisions made by parents, grandparents, and generations before us — decisions to marry, to work, to sacrifice, to build something stable enough to pass on.
Your life didn’t begin at your birth. It’s the continuation of a story, one that your family and ancestors have been weaving for generations. It’s a story that Almighty Providence is still oversees today. When we frame everything as a lottery, we lose a sense of responsibility, both backward and forward. Responsibility to honor what we inherited and responsibility to leave something better for those who come after us.
Seeing life as pure luck is not compassionate. It’s demoralizing, dehumanizing, and it distracts us from honoring our heritage and building for future generations.
At the Phyllis Schlafly Report, we honor history even as we look to the future. Join us in celebrating our past and building a golden future. Sign up at PhyllisSchlafly.com for emails and find fantastic resources. Again, that’s PhyllisSchlafly.com, and join us tomorrow for the Phyllis Schlafly Report.
