Parallel Highways: How Did I Get Here From There?!

Seriously, have you ever asked yourself how you got here? When we are young, people ask us what we want to be or do when we grow up. When we are growing up, we may even ask ourselves, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” We may change our minds through the years, but often our new path comes from an intersection with an older path. But what if the old road and the new one are parallel? How do you get there from here?

Growing up in a home with five children and parents who highly valued a college education, academics were emphasized daily. Dad’s directive was that we would go to college…and we would pay for it. It was that simple. I doubt that it ever crossed any of our minds to do differently. The only question was what we would study and which college or university we would attend.

Throughout high school, mathematics was my favorite subject. Of all the courses taken in high school, math was the easiest for me. At least the way I saw it, it was easiest. It had clean lines. Two plus two is four. There were rules to follow. Do this, and that will be the outcome. Except geometry; that was dreadful. Proofs?! Memorize all you can and hope that one of the proofs you study will be on the test! I had absolutely no idea what the teacher was doing. Proofs involved the rules of logic. Proving a statement relies on understanding basic concepts and using them to find your way to a logical conclusion. That involves theoretical understanding rather than the easier “step one, step two” type of work that I enjoyed. That struggle should have been a warning to me of what I would encounter ahead.

When it came to deciding what to study in college, mathematics won hands down. What I didn’t understand then was that “how to” wasn’t going to be enough to get me through some of the upper level math courses required in my major. God knew. Even when He led me to Georgia Tech. Even when He let me major in mathematics. He knew. And He knew just where that road would take me.

You’ve heard the saying, “The devil is in the details.” Let me rephrase that for you. “God is in the details.” He takes our weaknesses and uses them for our good. He takes our decisions and leads us on the path He has for us. He takes what looks like a hiccup in our nicely ordered world and puts us just where we need to be.

In my junior year, when I was failing two of my major math courses, I realized that grasping underlying theory of mathematics was not for me. “Maybe I should change to accounting where things are more practical.” Faster than a speeding bullet, I dropped the two upsetting classes, wrote my own curriculum for an accounting major at my school that didn’t have an accounting major then, received approval from the curriculum committee for that degree, changed my major, and signed up for joint enrollment with nearby Georgia State University to take the upper level accounting courses I would need. I was set.

Just over a year later, having finished my new course work (even though I had to learn the hard way that accounting also has theory!) I decided to stay at GT and finish my math major. Amazingly, my brain was now able to handle the math theory than it could not handle a year earlier. I was learning another valuable lesson: We mature with time and that which is hard now may be doable later.

I proceeded to graduate with my degrees, “undesignated” (aka, accounting) and “applied mathematics.” Throughout college, when people learned I was a math major, they would ask me what I was going to do, teach? After all, what else do you do with mathematics? My reply? “No way!” Teaching was not in my plan at all. And since I had no idea what to do with mathematics (there are jobs out there, I just didn’t know what,) I searched for a job using my “accounting” degree.

My first job out of college was as a loss auditor for an insurance company. For two years, God used that job to prepare me for a different profession He had in store for me. As I traveled the east coast of the US, I conversed with people on the plane and at the businesses I audited. I learned that the world was not all like my world, and people did not all think the way I did. I learned that I had to write a report of my findings so the bosses had a way to be confident when they made their decisions of how much to pay the insured. These were important lessons that would be needed for God’s future plan for me. I just didn’t know it. This type of work wasn’t straight forward, and it hurt my brain. My constant prayer was for God to please let me do something else! He listened…but kept me right where I was until He was ready for me to move.

I never planned to teach. Never say never! I told multiple people “no way” when they suggested the teaching profession. And yet God led me to a wonderful 39+ year career teaching middle and high school mathematics. It was not something I did just to make a living. I loved it! But how did I get there? I never planned to be on that road. God did. God made me with gifts and talents that are perfect for certain things. He knew just where I could do the most good for the most people while being blessed myself. And He knew where I needed to be in order for Him to get the glory that is due Him. He prepared me for that work and led me to it in His time.

Just as God led me to teaching, He led me away. I hadn’t planned to leave and didn’t want to leave. But I knew it was His plan. What does a math teacher do when she leaves the classroom unexpectedly? When she hasn’t planned to quit teaching and hears God telling her it is time to leave the school she’s been at for 25 years? By then I was teaching children of past students. My heart was there. Parents and students asked me what I was going to do. Was I going somewhere else to teach? Was I retiring? Was I going to tutor? My reply? “I’m going to rest, recuperate…and see what God wants.” I had no other answer.

Unplanned by me and totally unexpected, over the following year and a half, God took me to Israel four times. That made a total of seven trips to the Holy Land in four years. All that He did in those trips is more than can be told here. How He prepared me for those trips and what all I saw as I watched Him work on those trips is enough to keep my heart thrilled for the rest of my life. But what makes me chuckle to myself every day right now, is knowing that I am being directed down a road that to me is parallel to mathematics. English and Math, as far as I am concerned, are parallel highways. Creative writing was my most hated task in high school. How, then, do I find myself here, blogging, writing posts on FaceBook, and being told to keep writing…when I am, in my mind, a math teacher?! Only God. Period. How do we get here from there? God. With Him, nothing is impossible. With Him, we can have no fear. Abraham moved his wife and household to a land he did not know because he trusted the One who told him to go. That is how we find ourselves on a parallel highway. We get here from there by following our loving Guide, the One who has directed all our steps from day one, even when we didn’t know that He was doing it or where He was going.

“Faithful is He who calls you who also will do it.” I Thessalonians 5:24.

Where has God taken you and where may He be taking you?  Enjoy your journey.  Parallel highways or not, the road is good when you ride with our Heavenly Father leading your way!