Christian Living

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Math has never been my best subject. Frankly, math barely ranks as a subject with me and nobody realizes this more than my children. When it comes to math, mom’s brain just doesn’t “get it.” Praise God, there are schools that teach this sort of thing.

My oldest son is taking algebra, which to me is a mathematical oddity that makes absolutely no sense. Thankfully, he understands the weirdness pretty good; when he gets stumped, his dad’s brain is wired to help him out.

Me? I’m useless. This whole “A” chasing “B” thing is…well, what are letters doing in a math problem anyway? To sum up algebra, I echo the late actress Nell Carter who once said, “A has been chasing B since I was in school. If he hasn’t caught him by now, he never will.”

My youngest son has entered the wonderful world of fractions, which I do understand up to a point. Half a pizza? No problem. One-fourth of a yellow cake with chocolate icing? I’m all over it. Things only go south when we veer away from the basics. Converting, reducing and changing them into percentages leave me all a-flustered. Throw a decimal onto the pile and I don’t even bother.

How I ever passed college entrance exams is still an unsolved mystery.

Of all the math out there, though, I probably get fractions the most. So many things in life are a blend of them. Take my laundry—it’s always one-fourth done and three-fourths piled up. Even one of my dog’s is a fraction combo—half Black Lab, half Border Collie. Our very lives are a mix of home, church, work and social fractions that add up to a whole.

I also like fractions because they keep us organized. Closet dividers, silverware trays—these things are sectioned into nice, neat fractions that prevent disarray. They let us compartmentalize.

Now, keeping the knives separate from the spoons is one thing, but some people try to compartmentalize the different facets of their lives. If you’ve watched a movie about mob families, you’ve witnessed the Big Daddy shoot up his rivals in one scene and take communion in the next. The former is about business, the latter is about God and one, he believes, has nothing to do with the other.

Wrong. The Bible tells us that God is to be present in the whole of our lives, not fractioned out here and there. “In all your ways acknowledge Him.” (Proverbs 3:6)

In the real world, most folks don’t hail from a crime family, but plenty of people just include God in certain fractions of their lives. Consistently and intentionally, scripture is only applied in the areas they choose. I was recently speaking with a friend whose boss is guilty of this.

“He’s a saint outside of the office,” she says, “but he doesn’t think Christian principles will get him ahead at work—so he carries a pitchfork from 9 til 5.”

James 3:11-12 tells us this shouldn’t be. “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

Unless God is present in every area of our lives, we’re attempting to serve more than one master, whether its money, men or self. Though Jesus warned us against this (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13), so many people do it by trying to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the Word. Do we walk in the light at home, but deliberately step out of it in social settings? Do we allow Christ to influence some aspects of living, but completely ignore Him in others?

With questions of this ilk in mind, let’s remember another warning Jesus gave us: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10: 32-33)

I’m going to err on the side of caution and say that Jesus wasn’t speaking fractionally when He said that. I think He meant it 100 percent, not two-thirds, so let’s do the math in our own lives—and make sure He’s evident in the whole sum of things.

Once we become a whole person in Christ, life starts to add up better.

©Donna G. Morton, March 2007

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