Believing 1+1 Can Equal 5

"When God blesses, I cannot complain that the details are not as I would have planned."  ~Katy at Whatever is Lovely

Things are fixin to get deep, kids. 

I absolutely love the above quote about taking and appreciating God's blessings when He gives them, and not complaining about the details.  I've been having to remind myself of this lately.  I got an amazing job opportunity, but it's a long way from home in a town where I know hardly anyone, and where the humidity is like 157% all the darn time.  I meet The Boy from Texas, and then immediately move 8.5 hours away for said job and only get to see him twice a month.  I buy a great house, but now have to learn to deal with things like oven fires and toilet floods and little ants in the cabinet and mowing the lawn.

While I appreciate the blessings (and I really, really do), I whine and worry and complain about the details.  And I know that is ridiculous.  But they're not ideal, those darn details.  Along these lines, I can't tell you how many times I've made the statement related to The Boy from Texas that I just don't see how "the math" can work out for us.  Meaning that I do not understand logistically how us dating while living on opposite ends of the second largest state in America and both having jobs we really like can work.

The other morning I was out on a run with one of the girls who works in my department (can I mention that a 3.5 mile run at 5:30 in the morning should not leave you feeling like you just did hot yoga....HOW is it this hot all the time???) and I told her my math conundrum.  She said that during a Bible Study she did last year, she read something about that very issue.

She said that we expect 1+1=2.  We understand how that works.  We are not thankful for surprised or anything when that is the result, because that's just math.  We don't need to have any faith or help from God to get that answer. 

But God can make  1+1=5.  And in that situation, when things work that never should, when amazing things happen that we couldn't imagine, we realize that it's God at work.  We are forced to have faith that somehow, despite what we know from the calculator, the answer can be 5. 

And what's more, God uses these situations for good.  They strengthen our faith.  They draw us closer to Him.  They teach us patience (which has to be my least favorite subject ever next to calculus!).  So instead of complaining and trying to figure all of this out on a calculator and beating my head against the wall, I'm trying to sit back, enjoy the blessings, and see what God can do with the math.  Because maybe the answer is 5 even though I don't understand it right now.  Maybe my job is not to understand, my job is just to believe.



via Pinterest

But I do think am going to have to figure out how to get rid of these little ants in the cabinet on my own....