It’s 4 a.m. in Las Vegas. The grubbiest hour in the grubbiest city. What’s more, I just realized I’m flying to the wrong airport. My experiences here never let me down.
My uncle Darren would unironically be the greatest missionary exchange companion of all time. We both have an uncanny ability to submerge ourselves deep into the weeds. As we just drove to the grimy capital of the world in the dead of night, we found ourselves once more exploring the deepest depths of the gospel, eternal identity, faith, and the meaning of our existence. We got to talking about his life, experiences, and lessons that he’s learned over the years. He shared a story with me that was exactly what I needed to hear, and just a huge answer to my prayers.
My uncle grew up in Brazil along with my Dad. After graduating from high school, he wanted to do a year of college before going on his mission at 19. In Brazil, you go to the university to take a standardized test, and the best scorers on the test are the ones accepted into the university. He spent countless hours studying for the physics portion of the test. It was the one section that didn’t come naturally, which is ironic since his father (my grandpa) was a physics professor. He was studying the equations he needed to memorize immediately before taking that section. On the very first physics question he received, he realized it needed an equation he had just barely studied moments before. Yet, the material that he had diligently studied had completely escaped his mind. When the results came out, he did excellently in every category. However, he had missed the minimum score needed on the physics section to be eligible. What’s worse, he was only short by one singular question. One point! He thought, “Couldn’t God, who is all powerful, have helped me to get just one more right? Or remember just one more equation that I’d studied?” Devastated, he was forced to teach English for the next year instead of going to college.
This was a difficult disappointment for my uncle to accept. But the Lord always knows better than we do. Instead of commuting for nearly three hours each day to go to school, he was able to spend more time at home in the evenings. His sister, my aunt, Debbie, would make pie to share in the evenings. After work, he would enjoy the conversation and pie with her. After Darren had left on his mission, my aunt Debbie’s health took a sharp turn for the worse due to a heart condition she had. He told me that at the time of his leaving, her passing wasn’t even a remote possibility in his mind. Yet just a few short months after he left, she was laid to rest.
Steve Jobs once said that it is much easier to connect the dots looking back than looking forward. So often, the future is murky to us, like looking through the dark glass that Paul described in 1 Corinthians. Darren was heartbroken when he didn’t get into the university. It was a righteous desire to be able to go to school as he waited to leave for his mission. He had prayed for help on the test and was confused since he felt that his prayer wasn’t answered. But connecting the dots looking back, he couldn’t be more grateful that he didn’t make it into the university. Thank goodness he didn’t remember that physics equation. Thank goodness he didn’t get one more question right on that section. His precious time with his little sister would have been short, and those afternoons enjoying pie with her would have been consumed with travel and homework.
Sometimes we don’t understand why difficult things happen. We do our best, try our hardest, pursue things worth pursuing, and things still may not work out how we had hoped. But God is the master planner. He knows better than we ever could what is in our best interest.
Even when our most righteous desires don’t solve themselves immediately, we can find comfort that the Lord is in charge of the dots that lie ahead of us.