Hello friends! Sorry for the long absence, but I’m so happy to be back and am hoping summer brings more time to spend in this place I enjoy so much. Without further ado, here is a real, live blog post 🙂
Audio version:
If you were a product of the 80’s like myself, you most certainly remember the Rubik’s Cube. Most of the kids I knew owned one but for the majority of us, the last time we would ever see the colors in their rightful place was when we took it out of its plastic packaging. It turns out that it was very easy to scramble, but not so easy to put in order again. It didn’t come with a manual, we didn’t have YouTube or even the internet back then and I don’t have the kind of mind that can figure these things out on my own. The closest I ever got was solving one side, and then mangling it in the process of solving another, which wasn’t remotely satisfying. My little brother resorted to “solving” it by moving the stickers to where he wanted them to be. Eventually, the jumbled cubes were taken off our shelves and relinquished to the Goodwill.
When my husband, John, recently broke his ankle, a friend put together a care package of activities to help stave off the boredom while he was incapacitated. My eye fell on the Rubik’s Cube, which I immediately appropriated for myself (sorry, John!). Thanks to YouTube, I now had a viable path to solving this thing… the whole thing… and without having to take cues from my little brother.
Each evening I sat down with my video teacher and attempted to follow a set of logarithms he provided in a prescribed order which, he assured me, would result in a solved cube, with each color in its proper place and a sense of accomplishment. The first step, which seemed the simplest, was the white cross on top. The white corners followed. Then the next layer of color. And so on. I didn’t understand how each logarithm worked to get one piece from a particular place to another place without disturbing the rest of it – it truly was (and is) a mystery to me – but when I would faithfully follow his instructions, it somehow worked and order was achieved step by step.
I would often mess up a logarithm or apply the wrong one at a particular stage and get lost in the process. But all I had to do was return to the familiar white cross at the beginning and go from there. The repetition proved useful in reinforcing the foundations I was learning so I could continue to build on them. My hope, of course, was to make it all the way to a perfectly ordered cube. Not just once, as if by some fluke, but repeatedly because I had learned the path to get there. That way, a scrambled cube would mean nothing more than an entertaining path to resolution.
To my great surprise and delight, that is exactly what happened. I’m certainly no speedcuber like the kids at Chase’s school, but if you give me about five minutes, I can get it done. And I’d be delighted to have it scrambled again because guess what? I can do it again!
As I was working this out, I couldn’t help but think of its correlation to my life. It was insanely disordered and I felt as powerless as my 10 year old self holding a Rubik’s Cube. At times, I could “fix” one side, hoping nobody noticed all the other jumbled sides, but the minute I tried to gain control of another part, the order of the first was ruined. It all felt so impossible. Given the chance, I would have shelved my life or, better yet, plopped it in the bin outside the Goodwill.
I would still be in that hopeless state if I hadn’t found a Teacher to show me the way to get from that tangled mess to the ordered life I craved. He promised the solution and a speck of trust was all it took to get going. Interestingly, the path once again started with a simple cross; one I would return to again and again and again as I learned (and am still learning) the foundation for everything that would follow: That Jesus carried the entirety of my mess and, despite what anything looked like, He had made me whole.
Letting that truth work its way into the visible parts of my life wasn’t something I had to figure out how to do. He already knew the path. I just had to follow His instructions step by step. They were simple, but not easy because they didn’t always make sense to me and required trust. Forgiving someone who had wronged me felt counterintuitive and yet every time I did, pieces lined up in impossible ways and peace came as a result. Surrendering the objects of my heart that promised security was terrifying because it undermined my sense of control (as if my control could ever achieve more than a single solved side with a tangled mess beside and beneath!), but when I did, pieces flipped mysteriously into place and joy came. Sometimes it felt like He was asking me to undo everything that had already been accomplished, but once again, if I would trust and follow, the end result was wondrous and miraculous.
This was not (and still isn’t) a linear pathway for me. I mess things up or get turned around. But I know that if I just return to the familiar starting point of the cross, I can get going in the right direction again. Though frustrating, it is actually a gift because the repetition reinforces my inability to fix myself. It reminds me that I don’t have the path to freedom and, frankly, in my own ability I never will. But if I humbly enter into God’s wisdom and provision through the cross of Jesus, I will find myself with the order – and freedom – I always longed for.
My life thus far is proof of that. I am stunned by this fact on a regular basis. There is nothing perfect about my life (or me) and I truly hope that’s not the message I’m sending here, but it is beyond beautiful. Only because of grace and a really great Teacher. And do you know what? I’m not even all that scared anymore of the things that might mess it up, because the place I am standing is no fluke and I know Someone who can lead me right back here no matter what may come.
where waves grow sweet 
Start with the cross. Amen.
By: rwfrohlich on May 31, 2024
at 2:58 pm
Yes and amen!
By: Kara Luker on June 1, 2024
at 7:06 am
I love this so much, Kara. “…if I humbly enter into God’s wisdom and provision through the cross of Jesus, I will find myself with the order – and freedom – I always longed for.” Keep going back to the cross. Amen! Thank you so much for this visual and powerful truth you have blessed me with!
By: Patty hesaidwhatks on June 2, 2024
at 7:46 pm
Thank you for the kind words, Patty! 💗
By: Kara Luker on June 5, 2024
at 2:15 pm
I’m so glad you and the Teacher are gradually solving the Rubik’s Cube of your life, dear friend — and that we get to see and celebrate your progress (even as we mark the parallels in our own).
By: mitchteemley on June 14, 2024
at 3:28 pm
What a beautifully stated comment, Mitch! Are you a writer or something? 🙂
By: Kara Luker on June 17, 2024
at 3:13 pm
Dear Kara, It is nice to see you back posting again.\ No matter how much I mess up my grandson’s cube, he can bring all the colors back in about 30 seconds. How he does it is beyond me.
I don’t think I knew John broke his ankle. When? How? is he o.k. now?
Some time ago I sent a book a friend of mine wrote. It was about bees. Did you get it? It is written more for teenagers I think. When Roger I he uses another name as author) wrote it he wrote for both British kids as well as American. Roger is English. From time to time I had to look up some words that are English. Who was it, Curchill?? who said that Americans and British are divided by a common language? Roger told me that he used my name as the “rascal” boy in the story. Roger is a wonderful, brilliant man and a good friend. I bought copies for all family members. Joel is the last one I have to send it to – for his kids. I hope beekeeping “takes” for one of my nephews, nieces or grandchildren. Beekeeping is a wonderful hobby that is beneficial to both man and the environment. My balance is so bad that I had to give it up. I fell into a hive, knocking it over and had 60,000 very angry bees. I pulled about 100 stingers out of my socks when I got home. It took me a while to get everything back in order, but I had to give up taking care of bees.
There are many physical limitations that have come in my 80s. I think I have told you, but will repeat briefly. You can ask if you want to know more: congestive heart failure. AFib, COPD, heart pacemaker and loss of most balance. I have to use a walker, rarely going to just a cane. I tend to fall about once every other month. In January I had to spend a few hours in the ER as a fall resulted in a small amount of bleeding in the brain, which stabalized and six hours later, after another CT scan showed no further bleeding, i got to go home.
A week ago last Thursday I feel into the sharp corner of a bookcase and probably fractured a rib. Having fractured seven ribs in a motorcycle accident abut 22 years ago I am familiar with the feeling of that kind of pain. Nothing to do but live with it until healed. Tylenol from time to time.
The next day we left for a Friday to Monday reunion in the old Cacapon state park lodge in West Virginia. Joyce’s siblings, their children and grandchildren get together one weekend a year everfy other year. Keeping up with family like that is wonderful. We have been doing it for many years, with very few years missed due to things like Covid. Everyone always makes it there, escept for twice when one niece was in Japan while in tghe Marine Corps.
Joyce’s dad started this tradition years ago when he took the family on a four day tall ship sailing adventure in Maine. When he died, Joyce and her brothers set aside about $50,000 in inheritance to fund future reunions. The lodge in WVa was, for example, $4,000 for the weekend. If anyone wants, they will also fund food costs. Each family is responsible for preparing one dinner. All of us bring things for breakfast and lunch, with everybody sharing. I was relatively incapacitated with rib and balance issues, but was nicely cared for by everyone who brught mymeals to the table, etc. The rest went hiking, swimming, trap shooting, horseback riding, frisbee golf, etc. Noteverybody did everything, but many did almost all. I read a lot and went to town once with Joyce to buy a Goodwill long sleeved shirt. Before we learned where the thermostats were, the temp was set at 67 throughout the lodge. With temps in the 90s in the day time, I didn’t think about needing long sleeves in the house. Oh well, I now have a nice flannel shirt for $6.99.
I wish our family could meet like that from time to time.
A little over three weeks ago, I brought covid home from a retired mens group lunch I go to every Tuesday. The guy I rode with called Thursday to tell me that he came down with ovid Wednesday night. I was already coughing and had spread it to Joyce, who had symptoms two days later. We have had all the shots and avoided covid since it came here. I felt like the worst cold I have ever had. Mostly cough and body aches. Joyce had it pretty bad with fever too. We were both over it a few days before leaving for the reunion.
I really miss seeing you and your family and Joel and his family. I wish we could all visit sometime. I have an 1860s Spencer repeating rifle which Northern soldiers used in the civil war. My grandfather, Joe Lamb, gave it to me when I was about 14. Somebody placed the rifle and sword in storage at his Main Street Moving and Storage Company in Chattanooga. Daddy Lamb (my mom’s dad) gave it to me after it had been in storage about 40 years and he couldn’t find the owner. Joel, at a very young age, asked me for it someday Tjhat day came several years ago. I was going to take it to him the next time I visited Dianne, but alas that day never came.
Dianne put together a family photo album for John and Joel. I was upset when she sent me a bag of pictures from Mom’s and Dad’s several photo albums. Dianne took photos from those albums for her scrapbook, giving me the left overrs. What upset me the most was she didn’t annotate the photos. Mom had the names written in the original albums, some with white ink. I now have the album so I could show it to Jeff. Since Joel and his family have probably seen it, I;ll get it to John one of these days. I still enjoy looking at old photosof my parents when they were young. My cousin, Chris Bonner, the daughter of mom’s half sister Evelyn, who is still living in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and will be 100 next year, took digital photos of the album to put with a digital family history she is putting together.
We do keep up with Chris and her husband Bob. We visit each other every few years and have taken one or two European river cruises together.
Time for dinner and the news. I had no idea I would write so much. This started as a quicvk response to tell you how mucvh I like your blog and keeping up with You and yur family.
I really do know how to spell. My typing skills are not as good as they were before two mini strokes six years ago. Love to all, Joe
By: beenehrc on July 6, 2024
at 3:09 pm
So good to hear from you, Uncle Joe! I sent a reply to your email 🙂
By: Kara Luker on August 17, 2024
at 4:02 pm
Loved the analogy between our lives and the Rubik’s cube and how God sorts us out, even when it feels impossible. This imagery will stick with me, thanks! 😊
By: FlowIntoWords on August 1, 2024
at 8:14 am
Thank you for the kind comment!
By: Kara Luker on August 2, 2024
at 6:57 am