In their book Made to Stick, authors Heath and Heath talk about a high school math teacher’s response to the age-old question, “When are ever going to use this?”. “Never, he told his students, you will never use this…. You do math exercises so that you can improve your ability to think logically, so that you can be a better lawyer, doctor, architect, prison-warden or parent.”
What a great answer. Why didn’t any one ever explain it to me like that before? I might have let go of the grudge I’ve held against my math teacher long before now. (And am I the only one who thinks the career choice of prison-warden or parent side-by-side is funny?)
So often in life, the most difficult moments are the whys. Why did this happen? Why am I going through this? Why won’t this ever end?
I think a high school math teacher has given us all the answer* - so that we’re better prepared for the rest of life.
Not once since school have I had occasion to use Trig or Algebra II. Thankfully, not once. But all those times when I thought I just couldn’t go one step further, I’ve learned from those moments.
Hindsight and the perspective of distance are a curse, and a beautiful gift. Because of them, we watch seemingly random dots connect and we exhale a collective ‘Ahhh, so that’s why. This was the reason.’ We nod sagely with our newfound insight and we congratulate each other on “unanswered” prayers.
Then the next time we are in so deep that we can see neither the beginning or the end, we moan and sigh at the unhappy fates that have befallen us. We forget that those moments are the aligning of the stars, the shifting of the planets and that they are just for us.
*Jeremiah 29:11 also contains the same answer, in a different format: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
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