Go Figure.

I am a qualitative being in a quantitative world. 

Yesterday I woke up and checked the weather. 30% chance of rain for the afternoon. There was sun in the sky, so I put on a cardigan and headed out for class. As I sat in Calculus class I listened to the professor go on...and on...about statistics. You know, percentages, etc. Leaving the classroom I looked out side. That 30% changed to a 100% very fast. I was frustrated, why isn't the weather forecast qualitative? Instead of 30% chance of rain, why not say, "It's a tad chilly, and you should probably take an umbrella with you." Let's just say that when I arrived home I was very happy to be in a house that was 100% warm and dry. 

I keep a copy of Antoine de Saint Exupery's "Le Petit Prince" (The Little Prince) in my room to remind me of this. The following is a passage, a very important one in my opinion, from the book. The English translation reads, 

"Grown-ups love figures. 'When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?' Instead they demand: 'How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?' Only from these figures do they think they know anything about him..."

"But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference" (17). 

The Little Prince is right. For those of us who do understand life, even a little bit, know that life has very little to do with numbers. This goes for living life well, and for being a good disciple. You think it's impressive to say you've read the bible everyday? Well good for you. You think it's of utmost importance to know how many chapters are in each book of the bible? Well la-te-da! We may not be able to make the weather channel go from quantitative to qualitative descriptions, but there is something we can do about our lives. We can to stop being defined by the details, and start defining ourselves by discipleship. A disciple is someone following someone else, learning to do what they do, so that we may one day do what they did. Discipleship is about learning, not gaining knowledge, but learning in the sense of being transformed. 

This week I was reminded that relationships are not about check lists. It is not about how often you call someone, nor how much you know about a person, nor how long you have known them. In the same way, a relationship with Jesus is not about how often you pray, how much knowledge you have about the bible, or how long he's been your homeboy. Relationships at the core are about love. Loving Jesus means dedicating yourself to be his disciple. That does not mean that praying and reading scripture are unimportant, they are. I just believe that the definition of a relationship cannot be based on numbers, I think that a part of understanding life means looking at figures as a matter of indifference, just like Le Petit Prince. 

One of these will always come first in my books.