Life starts out pretty simple just like math class.......

Somewhere along the way, things get a little trickier.........

But we begin to "see" how things have to balanced for the equal sign to work it's magic.

Equal signs are really just a way of saying two sets of numbers are balanced.

We begin to see that whatever we do to the right side of an equation, we have to do to the left......

Eventually, our teachers begin to take out numbers and replace them with letters, but STILL, the balancing system is crucial for the equal sign to have meaning.

You give and take away in order to keep both sides even.

We're shocked to discover that even our chemistry teacher uses a balancing system to show how chemical reactions work.

I remember being so intrigued by the fact that nothing new is ever created.

It's just transformed from one thing to another.

Water becomes steam.  We don't "create" steam.

Water becomes ice. We don't "create" ice.

Life on this earth is a constant, on-going equation.

But sometimes we turn around and discover that one side of the equation fills our board.

We're overwhelmed.

We've had this happen and that and then this again and then that again......

and before we know it,

it's really difficult to understand how things will ever be balanced again.

It's as if one side of our life scale is pushed all the way to the ground and the other side is flopping around high up in the air!

What do we do then?????

How do we find the answer to this equation, so that our equal sign can do it's job of balancing both sides of our life equation.

I've been in math classes before where students have asked,

"When will I ever use this in real life?"

I've asked that question before many times in math classes throughout high school and college.

And if I think about it long enough, I could say the same thing as this guy.......

But here's what I tell students.

And here's what I'm telling myself today.

The biggest thing we can take away from difficult math problems is the gift of understanding how to break them down into solvable equations.

Math is about learning how to solve something.

Something difficult.

We may never use algebra II in our real-world experiences, but we will be called upon to face big problems and figure out how to combine and take away pieces of the problem until we have an answer.

The equal sign means "balanced."

Sometimes God is one thing we're missing on one side of an equation in order for it to level out and make sense.

Think about your life today.

Do you feel weighed down by this world.

Do you feel unbalanced?

What can you take away?

What can you add?

Ask God to join you on your side of the scale and allow the equal sign to do its job.