Dear Daughters,
My favorite subject as a sophomore in high school was geometry. One of the basic axioms I learned was, The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. And it is indeed true – in geometry.
But as you may have noticed in life, we don’t travel from Point A (birth) to Point B(death) in a straight up-the-mountain line. There are high points, low points and lots of zigs and zags around the in-between points.
I could never understand those people who had 10-year plans or 5-year plans, simply because I wasn’t one of them. A 1-year plan was about as far out as I could think. If you own a business you have a plan for future growth, expansion projects, and other such things outside of my realm of knowledge, but my life as a wife, mom and teacher was often lived one day at a time – and sometimes barely that.
Since Dad and I have been married we have moved 11 times within four states, and that’s a lot of zigging and zagging geographically. Some people seem to be able to learn the things God has prepared for them while they live in the same house, others of us need to go from place to place, learning those important lessons of life.
I used to ponder the Israelites wandering from place to place in the wilderness for 40 years, when they could have walked straight to their destination in a few weeks. I remember thinking, That’s a really inefficient way for God to get His people from here to there. But after reading about all their grumbling, complaining and general discontent with everything going on in their lives- even in the midst of free food and clothes that never wore out – I began to understand I was much like them.
In my earlier years, I would often complain how things in my life were not going as I would have liked. Moving here, moving there, meeting friends only to leave and start over again. I was simply looking to my comfort as the litmus test for my happiness. I was lonely, I didn’t have a long-term friend, my potential was not being fulfilled….
Quite self-centered and immature, don’t you think?
In 1543, Copernicus bravely announced his audacious theory that the sun was the center of our solar system, not the earth as was commonly thought. Although this theory had been previously considered well before Jesus was born, it had never been given much credence.
In the same way, humans throughout all the ages have gravitated toward the idea that we are the center of our own small universes, but as most of us have figured out it’s not true and it doesn’t bring much happiness.
I used to pray, asking God to change the circumstances of my life so I could have a peaceful life. If I was ever in a place remotely resembling a wilderness, I would try quickly to change the people (usually my family) or conditions around me to suit my preferences.
Thank God I have learned that I am the only person I can change. I know now not to avoid or escape the hard times, but to ask what He wants me to learn through them. After many years of grumbling, I have learned to thank God for actually using the hard times to help me – not to hinder me.
Of course, we have to understand that the number one focus of God as he works in our life is to mold our character to be like His. Specifically, He is making us more patient and kind, less boastful and proud, more joyful and long-suffering, less selfish and impatient. Character is much more important than money, control and fame – which is completely upside down to what our culture teaches us.
And what does He use to cause these qualities to appear in us? Hard times of isolation and stress. In tough times – instead of running from them – it’s best to press into God, lean on Him and trust Him to lead through and beyond to the other side.
In God’s economy, a zigzag line is the shortest distance between two points.
Bill Lawrence
My friend, Natasha, has led a zigzag life in many ways. Traveling from place to place, finances running low, with unexpected roadblocks and difficulty plaguing her since childhood, she could easily fall into self-pity. But her stories usually circle around to the fact that she is learning to trust God in the macro as well as the micro, the seen as well as the unseen.
God has each of us in a unique place, in just the right moment of time and in the exact family that is best for us. Of course it’s hard, everywhere is hard, but we were not put on this earth simply to have a joy fest.
I was walking outside the other day enjoying the beautiful sunshine when I heard some whirring wings above my head. I looked up and saw a large flock of birds, starlings I think. These amazing birds were doing acrobatics as if they had trained and practiced. They would swoop up vertically for a short time then perform a circular pattern, immediately straighten out and fly as if on a racetrack. Then just as I thought they would continue on out of sight they swooped down for a bit and returned toward me as if they were performing an intricately choreographed routine simply for my pleasure. There wasn’t a single collision of birds as they flew in split-second precision.
How did each one of those tiny birds know when the group was going to do their maneuvers? I just stood there amazed as I watched them perform for me, then finally took off to give someone else a fascinating show.
When I consider the remarkable wisdom and creativity of God to gift small, seemingly insignificant birds with the ability to fly such intricate drills, I marvel. Then I think, If Jesus choreographs their lives and flight patterns so perfectly I can rest assured that He is doing the same for me and you – zig zags and all.
Love, Mom
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