Catching Idle Butterflies

A Math Problem

Math to most is a four-letter word. Of all the subjects they learn in school, they dread math the most.

Me, on the other hand, adore math. Algebra, trigonometry, and even calculus, that’s the stuff that makes my mouth water. I fell in love with math’s consistency early on. 4 + 4 always equals 8. Plug in the same numbers into Pythagorean’s Theorem (a2 + b2 = c2) and the answer will always be the same. I trust math implicitly. There are never any surprises – unless I plug in the wrong numbers. Still, that’s not a math problem, but a human problem.

My dad made a comment to me the other day: “I expect God to be logical, but he consistently surprises me. I think – logically – he should do one thing, but then he goes and does something else.”

I laughed because I often have the same complaint. God isn’t logical, darn it.

Or is he, and we little humans are the illogical ones? We, after all, don’t have God’s knowledge or experience, so our definition of what’s logical can’t be the same as his.

Looking at it mathematically, we have only a small part of the equations of life. We plug our numbers into the variables we know, and God plugs in the rest – without showing us what he’s doing. It’s no wonder the answers come out different than we expect.

The difficulty comes in thinking we have the entire equation, and in turn get frustrated when the answer doesn’t come out right. However, if we realize the equation is much bigger than we see, we need to trust God to fill in the rest, and trust his answers.

That’s not easy, because, for me at least, I don’t want to fill out only the parts I know and am given to understand. I want to see, understand, and test God’s math – all of it. I want to know his mind, how he thinks, and where it all ends up.

At the same time, however, I want to manipulate God’s equations to get the answers I want. That is as futile as trying to prove 4 + 4 = 105.47. No amount of tweaking will change the fact 4 + 4 = 8.

At other times, I think I have a simple 4 + 4 equation, but instead get 105.47. I scratch my head, moan, and complain as to how on earth that could be. It makes no sense.

Until I realize the equation isn’t 4 + 4. It’s more like (4*h)*(a+b)/(b+(4*s)). Depending upon the numbers I plug into the variables, the answer could very easily equal 105.47.

One of these days I’ll accept – and trust – that God not only knows every constant and variable of the equations of my life, but also the right answers. I shouldn’t worry whether or not he adds or subtracts wrong somewhere, because, well, he’s God.

“Have you never heard?
         Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
         the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
         No one can measure the depths of his
                   understanding.” ~ Isaiah 40:28