by: Staci Stallings
So the other night my 16-year-old son, the light guy, sat in his chair in the living room perplexed beyond measure. His quandary? He’d been working for a couple of weeks on a prototype for a new light design for the Christmas light show at our house in our yard. The design is basically “sticks” of light that have pixels in them that will change colors and when set up, will make our yard look like it’s moving. Pretty cool, right?
But here was the issue. In the initial design stage, he had asked his friends all across the globe who do this kind of thing year-round if his design would work. Some said emphatically, “Yes.” Others even more emphatically said, “No.” In fact, the “no” group used words like physically impossible. So he had almost given up the idea before he’d even tested it. The thing was, though, that enough people said yes, it would work that he was willing to at least get some wire and test it out.
And he did… in my living room. (My living room is kind of the Star Labs area of our house – The Flash reference for bonus points!) According to the “no” group, the electricity push would not be enough to make even the second pixel light come on—much less any more than that.
Here was the perplexing part: Not only did the second light come on, so did the third, fourth, fifth… and fiftieth! In fact, he hooked up 174 lights and they ALL WORKED!
As he sat in that chair looking at his invention literally doing the impossible, he kept saying, “But this wasn’t supposed to work.” So, being the inquisitive mom I have now become, I asked why he was so sure that it wouldn’t work. To which he said, “Mathematically, this is impossible. Mathematically there is no way this is ever supposed to have enough electricity to do this, but it does. I just don’t get how it’s doing this.”
That’s when I told him my theory of “the gap.”
You see, in our world there is so much visible and so much science of even the invisible that we begin to think we know “everything.” We begin to assume we know all there is to know… which is dangerous. Because if you know all there is to know, then you don’t approach life with curiosity and wonder. Rather it becomes monotonous and boring.
I told him that when Newton discovered gravity, gravity had always been there. It had been operating continuously since the beginning of the earth, but we didn’t know about it until that apple fell on Newton’s head, and he became aware that there was something there we didn’t know about yet. So he did experiments and…. Voila! New information! New knowledge! New understanding!
And that’s how all new understanding comes into being. So I told him, “If math says this doesn’t work and yet, in the real world it does, then there is something in the math that we don’t yet know about—something in that equation that isn’t yet exactly right. There’s a gap between what we know and how things really are.”
That gap is where I work every single day. It takes faith to live in the gap—and a whole lot of courage. It’s so much easier when you know what you’re doing. It’s so much easier when there are steps to follow that have already been laid out and trod, and you just have to follow them too.
I think that’s why religion is so enticing. In a play about the Israelites that I just wrote, one of the characters says, “Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” We want tried and true. We like “The Books of the Law.” The law is safe. Faith isn’t.
Faith lives somewhere in that gap, somewhere in the wildness (wilderness) of the unknown.
How can this ever work?

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I don’t know, but God does.
How does this story go?
I don’t know, but God does.
How does this character get from lost and hurting and alone to whole and loved and loving?
I don’t know, but God does.
As a writer, I live in the gap. Sometimes it freaks me out though it’s gotten a lot easier since I let go of the illusion that I’m in control or supposed to be. I’m not. But I know Who is.
So, dear reader, what are your gap moments or adventures? In what things are you facing the unknown with courage and faith?
Thinking about it, I think this is one of the lessons my characters face over and over again…. How to face the future, the unknown with faith rather than fear… How to get from the outer limits of what I know across what I believe is impossible all the way into the waiting arms of what God says works?
Maybe, just maybe they’re teaching others how to take that leap of faith into the gap. I know that’s one of the things they’ve taught me!
I like your explanation of the gap. It make sense to me. Yes
Hi Staci! Thank you for an uplifting inspiring blog. As a retired senior citizen with some health issues, each day is an unknown. Facing the aging process takes faith and courage. How much to intervene in adult children’s lives takes faith and courage. Letting go of raising grandkids takes faith and courage. Knowing God is control all takes faith and courage, especially when life doesn’t go our way. Thanks for the reminder. Love what we learn from a younger generation. Enjoy your weekend.
Awesome, Brenda!
Thanks for stopping by & have a blessed day!
Renate,
I think when I was younger, I tried to control the unknown. I did not have a clue how to live with it. I think I really thought I could get to a place that I would control so much that there wouldn’t BE anymore unknowns.
The older I get, the more I recognize the power in being able to know Who lives in that gap–and it’s not me. I struggled with that for a very long time, but now that I know HIM and trust HIM, the unknown, even when it’s hard, doesn’t terrify me nearly as much as it once did.
Have a blessed day as you live in the gap!
Thanks for sharing this! Very though-provoking.
Thanks, Margaret!
Have an awesome day!
I love this!! Thank you!!!
Thanks for taking a few minutes to spend with me today, Trudy!
God bless!
Wow, this really made me stop and think. Thanks for sharing.
There is a sense of safety when we follow the rules. However, life isn’t set up that way. There are so many unexpected variables involved, we cannot rely on any list we think are reasonable.
I heard a great quote once: “It may be reasonable, but is it realistic?”
When we can wrap our minds around looking for the realistic instead of the rules we create regarding what we think is a reasonable expectation, we are well on our way to living a life in perspective.
Interesting post, Staci! I’d be interested in some pictures when you get the lights all up!
Thanks for stopping by, Jessica! I hope your day is fabulous!
Some rules work and are helpful. I just think too often we look to the rules as absolutes, and that is not always the case. We’re all working and learning and growing.
I think of the people who sailed toward the horizon, going on faith that they wouldn’t just fall off the edge. I’m not really that kind of pushing the edge kind of person, at least I don’t think of myself that way. But I am realizing through helping my son that I’m not quite as tied to the status quo as I might sometimes lead myself to believe. I think that mostly comes out in my writing and in my work helping people become what they imagine rather than staying stuck in all that has ever been.
Thanks so much for spending a few minutes of your day with me, Susan. I’m very honored! God bless!
Winnie, I’ll try to remember to post about it long about December. For now, here’s a look at the lights from last year. Amazes me when I think about all he’s accomplished in his short 16 years….
I’m really impressed, Staci! That’s fantastic! I love those displays. I think my youngest son would have enjoyed doing that when he was young. I doubt he’d have the time now–or the money.
Winnie, *GRIN!* Actually, my son pays for all of it now either through donations or working for his dad. He’s also doing some DJ work now. Oh, and he gets a lot of the non-pixel lights from Dollar General. So there’s that! :D
Hi Staci, How cool that your son’s experiment worked! I agree with your theory on the gap. Congrats on your new release & thanks for sharing with us. :)
Thanks for swinging by, Narelle! Hope you have blessed-beyond-measure day!