Solve
for Y
by Staci Stallings
My mother never particularly liked math,
but I remember one thing she always told me when I was younger about
algebra. When kids would say, “But
algebra? When are we ever going to use
this?” My mom would say, “I use it every
day. Algebra says, ‘Let x stand for the
unknown,’ and let me tell you, there’s a lot of unknowns in my life.”
The other day I was reading a book about
how to make a quality school or a quality classroom. As I read, the author kept saying how it is
critical to get a student to understand why
they need to learn whatever you are teaching. He said the failure to do so is
one reason students get burned out and tune out.
The famous question, “When am I ever gonna
need this?” comes to mind. If kids don’t
see the correlation between what they are learning and what they are going to
need later in life, a few might learn it.
Most will learn it and then promptly forget it. Others will never bother to learn it at all.
We see this as adults in people we work
with. They show up to work. They even do some work. But they do it half-heartedly and can’t wait
for five o’clock to show up so they can go do something that really means
something to them.
Unfortunately we also see this in our
families these days too. Couples get in
a rut of going through the routine of days until the routine has become the
relationship instead of the relationship setting the routine. With our kids we have short fuses and even
shorter attention spans. It’s ever so
much easier to set them in front of a Playstation and forget they exist than to
make an effort to connect with them and get to know them.
I think the main issue behind all of this
“opting out” of life goes back to algebra.
We are not solving for y.
Why am I doing this? Oh, we ask ourselves that in a fit of
frustration, but we never really bother to answer it.
Why am I raising this family? When we get to the end, what do we want this
family to be, and are the moments we have now pointing in that direction or
some other entirely?
Why am I at work? To earn a few dollars that will be gone in a
month or a minute?
Why am I alive? To “get through”?
I don’t think God’s answer to why is about
surviving or getting through or just
anything… I think God’s answer has to do with abundance of living.
If we are “just getting by,” why are we
settling for that? Of course, we don’t
have to make wholesale changes like quitting our job or moving to a new
state. We can simply shift our
understanding of why.
Why am I raising my family? Because God granted me the gift of these
children and this spouse. No, they are
not perfect, but even God doesn’t require perfection. My job is to love them, to guide them, and to
support and encourage them the best that I can with God doing most of it
through me. That is my y.
At work, the answer is much the same. I’m not working to be top dog because if I
am, someone is coming up very quickly to knock me off of that spot. No. I’m at work to share Christ’s love—not
necessarily by evangelizing but by loving those who work with me. I can pray for them. I can help them. I can support them. That can be my new y.
I plan to ask my Sunday School class as we
start a new year to solve for y. Why are
you here? Why do you come on
Sundays? Why is this important?
So now I ask you that question: Why are you here--on this planet, in this
family, in this situation right now?
Solve for y.
It makes a difference.
Copyright Staci Stallings, 2008
Staci Stallings, the author of this article, is a Contemporary Christian
author and the founder of Grace & Faith Author Connection. You can check
out one of Staci's Best-Selling Christian Romances...
White Knight~ The Courage Series~
Book 2
"Expect the
unexpected..."
"Through a series of entertaining
twists and turns and a lot of suspense, two very unlikely people find in each
other a reason to laugh and love and live."
--Amazon
Reviewer, Myrna Brorman
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