Figuring It Out

"Susie doesn't play fair."

That's what my two young daughters and a pal said about the new neighbor girl who recently came over to play.

"She uses scary magic and we don't use that," they went on, "and she's always trying to tell us what to do."

"Girls," Mom and Dad replied, "she doesn't know how you guys play. Just show her how."

Isn't a lot of life spent trying to figure things out and fitting in?

When my wife and I were in Dallas last month, some friends took us out to eat at their favorite restaurant. While they were zipping through the ordering line, we were perplexed. The menu was right at the door; if you missed it, you had to go back and look. If you wanted a sandwich, you order it from the lady roaming the customer line. If you wanted a salad, you ask for that from the attendants behind the counter. If you wanted dessert...geez, I never figured out how to order that.

Once we figure out that new town, that new job, that new gadget, that new friend, or that new church, life's routine gets easier. Meanwhile, it's easy to forget that some people are struggling to to make sense of it all.

I've been a Christian for 30+ years. In once sense, I've "figured out" what it means to walk with Jesus. But in another sense, I'm still trying to "figure it out."