by Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
What was your favorite subject in school?
You can’t pick recess as your favorite. Nor can you pick lunch as your favorite.
For me my favorite was history. I really enjoyed learning about history and to this day I still read and learn about history.
It is enjoyable to learn about the different twists and turns that took place throughout history and to imagine what would have happened if it hadn’t happened that way. You can learn quite a bit from history and hopefully avoid some of the challenges of the past.
My least favorite class in school was math or algebra. I never cared for finding out what X was and it was always a challenging class for me.
So imagine my surprise when I was reading recently and they discussed a math equation that made me stop and ponder.
The equation is this: 0.8 multiplied by 0.2. Frankly it is a rather simple equation. The answer is 0.16. But do you see the problem? The product of those two numbers is actually less than both 0.8 and 0.2.
Interesting math problem. How can the product of both of those numbers be less than either of the two numbers? You would think that when you multiply two numbers that you will get something greater than the two numbers.
Setting math aside, Ozan Varol in his book “Awaken Your Genius” applies it to our lives this way: When we operate with only a fraction of who we are we will in fact compromise the output that we can give when we are a complete number (page 40).
It is easy to see the spiritual application for each of us.
We are only a fraction of who God intends for us to be when we try to operate without God.
God completes us. When we give our hearts to God, we then have God living in and through us. That makes us whole instead of a fraction of who God wants us to be. Romans 6:4 tells us how to be whole.
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
With Christ you have the right equation and with Christ you can truly be complete and greater than you would as a fraction.
Let us all walk in newness and completeness with Christ this week.