Rubik's Cube Faith

I hate the Rubik's cube. It baffles me completely. Yes, I know, there's a systematic way to solve it, but that kind of stuff just doesn't fit in my brain. I'm not good at spatial calculations, and fortunately for my driving record, my bad depth perception errs on the side of caution.

At CCC last week, two of the counselors did a brief skit/devotion with a Rubik's cube. While Daniel paced around solving the puzzle, Zach talked about how solving a Rubik's cube is kind of like how God leads us through our lives. We're the Rubik's cube--we're just a jumbled mess and can't get ourselves straightened out. But God knows what our lives are supposed to look like. God has a plan.

One of the things that has frustrated me most when I've tried to solve a Rubik's cube in the past is that you'll get to where you're almost done, but there's just one or two squares out of place. The things is, in that situation, you have to backtrack and stuff has to get jumbled up again before it can all be straightened out. I hate that part. I would get so close and then be told that if I wanted to complete the puzzle, I'd have to scramble all my hard work. I didn't want to do that. I'd have to let go of my almost (but not quite) perfect Rubik's cube.

That's the part of this metaphor that really stuck out to me. When we're following Christ, we have to be willing to go places that may not fit our idea of how this thing called life should go. We might get really close to where we think we need to be and then have to take a detour to actually get there.

I've got two verses from Proverbs that relate to this:


"The human mind plans the way,
but the Lord directs the steps." -- Proverbs 16:9

"All our steps are ordered by the Lord;
how then can we understand our own ways?" -- Proverbs 20:24


That first one is a verse I've spent a good bit of time with because I'm a planner and need to learn that whatever agenda I set, God has something much better in mind. The second one is another I've read before, but the idea of not understanding our own ways interests me. I've used the image of walking in pitch dark with only a flashlight to guide our steps (or sometimes, I've said, a cell phone). We can't always see the big picture of why things are coming together (or falling apart) the way they are. That doesn't mean we can explain everything away as being God's will; it means that we can let go of the need to understand. How freeing.

One more thing this line of thought reminded me of is a prayer by Thomas Merton from Thoughts in Solitude. This is one of my favorite prayers, and I recently realized it's printed in the back of the Bible I use most frequently these days. Here it is, with underlining added in the places I feel are most relevant:


My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.


Amen.