By: Denny-

We have a small fireproof lock box where we keep our important papers, keepsakes, and documents. It contains our birth certificates, high school diplomas, titles to all our vehicles, marriage certificate, credit cards, original Social Security cards, letters, and several computer flash drives with family pictures and videos. As I was sorting through it the other day looking for something, I came across a manila envelope that contained all my report cards from grades K-12. My mother had saved them and had given them to me years ago. Distracted from my original search I decided to review them. It was interesting to see my grades and read the comments (some good, some not so much) my teachers wrote, up until junior high. After that they didn’t write as many comments unless I was failing a class, but only issued a grade. The two classes I did poorly in were Writing Composition and Arithmetic. My math grades improved, but I always hated to write book reports or term papers, which is really ironic given that nowadays I enjoy writing these blogs for my website quite often. In the early grades when I was learning my numbers and their sequences, the teacher would give us a ‘connect the dots’ assignment. It was basically a blank sheet of paper with a whole bunch of dots and a number beside each one. The object was to find the number 1 dot and using it as a starting point, locate the number 2 dot and draw a line to it. From 2 you would draw a line to 3 and then to 4, 5, 6, 7, and so on. You always used a pencil in case you made a mistake and needed to erase it. As you were connecting the dots, the next dot might be clear across the paper in a different direction. Often the line was zigzagging all over the page. It often never made sense until all the dots and lines were completed revealing the outline of an object, animal, or whatever.

That was over 65 years ago. In looking back I’ve come to realize that life is very much a series of events and connecting the dots. Some lines are straight and makes sense, then suddenly the next dot or event is in a completely different direction zigzagging here and there. Life is full of mistakes that we would like to erase, but we can’t. However, even those mistakes or bad things that happened to us actually are part of the whole picture, we just can’t see it at the time. Try this experiment by picking in your mind a starting point in your distant past then follow the life events (dots) as they progressed. Every event whether good or bad has brought you to where you are today. We often like to speculate how different life today would be if we could go back and change that one event or decision. Life might be different, but it may or may not be better. Every event in your life is connected to another person in one way or another. However, being connected to God and by faith trusting in him, helps us to continue connecting the dots when we often don’t know where the next dot is or where it will take our life. Such was the case of Abraham as told in Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterward receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. If you want a definition of faith it would be, drawing a line before you know where the next dot is. Sometimes God will show us exactly where and what the next dot is, but not always. Speaking from my own experience, it wasn’t until looking back years later that I understood the sequence of dots in my life that made up and revealed the whole picture.

Many times I’ve felt like I do right now, drawing a line but wondering and waiting for God to show me the next dot. The story of Joseph as found in Genesis chapters 37-50, is one of the greatest ‘dot connecting’ stories found in the Bible. His brothers were jealous of him. They wanted to kill him, but instead sold him and he was taken to Egypt and became a slave to Potiphar a high official. God gave him favor and he was successful until he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown into prison. He was there for many years, but God again gave him favor and through a series of events (dots), Joseph became second in command of all Egypt under the Pharaoh. Now which dots do you think in looking back that Joseph would have liked to have changed? The answer is found in Genesis 50:20 where he tells his brothers: But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.  In looking back, Joseph finally came to understand how each dot, both good and bad, was intricately woven into God’s purpose for him.

On a more personal note, sometimes all we need is someone to come alongside us and encourage us to keep going. Lately I’ve been wondering if I should keep writing. I started writing and initiated my blog website in 2014 and felt the urging of the Lord to do so. As the years passed my writings have increased. To date I have posted a total of 95 with a goal to reach 100, but the response has been less than I anticipated. In the last 10 years my website has had 3,464 visitors with 5,561 views by people from 38 countries including the United States. In school I struggled to write a 100-word essay, but to date my 95 posts contain 132,600 words. That may not seem like a great accomplishment, but that alone is for me.  My statistics show that since the beginning I’ve acquired only 7 regular email subscribers, 8 comments, 45 likes, and no way of knowing if anyone has shared even one of my posts with someone else. I think the results would be different if they had been. I believe what I write to be honest and true based on my own experiences and the Bible. It can be disappointing and discouraging when I see those who have millions of likes and followers for saying and writing stupid stuff or just because they are a celebrity. Nevertheless, I am resolved that I will keep writing regardless of my readership statistics until the Lord tells me to stop and that dot is completed. After all, this isn’t about me, it’s about Him. If even one person has been influenced by my writings so that they have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior or been drawn into a closer relationship with Him, then the only ‘like or comment’ that matters to me is from the Lord Himself.

Friend, perhaps you’re going through a difficult situation or season in your life where nothing makes sense. You may feel like your whole life has been a bunch of detours and dead ends, but God can make a way where there seems to be no way. He led Moses to the Red Sea with pharaoh’s army behind them and no way out. No problem for God, he just parted the waters. God will and can do whatever it takes to connect you to the next dot in your life. Instead of letting fear, worry, doubt, hopelessness, and striving to find and connect the next dot yourself; connect with God and let him lead you. You may have to go through difficulties, hurts, and disappointments, but it’s all part of his master plan if you trust him. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. You may not see it right now, but someday looking back you will understand the ‘all things’,  until then, keep Connecting the Dots.