Harold’s class was about Bible doctrine. (I had to ask him what ‘doctrine’ meant).

But it didn’t stay Bible doctrine.

Somehow Harold put one arm around the book and the other arm around all those dots I mentioned yesterday.

Like they were all friends or something

It was subtle. He wasn’t preachy, and he didn’t use the Christian cliches I’d heard.

I didn’t hear direct answers or explanations on how the dots were connected. But I felt it.

You know how a family has many members and generations, and each is an individual, yet each is related? And you can see the family resemblance in each individual no matter how different they are from each other?

Hearing Harold talk made me feel that way about my dots.

They’re all one big family

It was appealing. It felt good.

Life seemed simpler when I heard him talk.

Later, I’d call for advice on what was bugging me in my marriage, or with money, or at church or work. Questions about all those dots. I was amazed at how he seemed to see threads of connection, consistency, and predictability in things I thought were unrelated.

When you learn to connect the dots, living becomes art, not a how-to

When I called for advice he wouldn’t tell me what to do. He just asked questions and told stories and helped me think. I told him “I don’t want to call you every time I’m trying to figure things out. I want to be able to do this myself.” He said, “You’ll get there.”

He didn’t teach me. He just did it and I seemed to learn by watching him. Then I caught it.

Expect that here for the rest of the 31 Days

Stories, observations, and questions. Threads of connection between pieces that you think are unrelated.

Maybe something will begin to add up for you like it did for me.

~~~

Day 3 of 31 Days of Connecting the Dots: make more sense of your life, your world, your hopes and dreams. Subscribe on the right or below and each day will be delivered every morning to your inbox. Visit the Nester for over 1,000 more 31 Dayers.