I’ve been thinking a bit about bell curves and how every one of us is somewhere on one whether we know it or not.
Bell curves are everywhere. They’ve been used to show things like the breadth of intelligence in society . . . with a few at extremes on both sides and the bulk of us somewhere in the middle. They’ve also been used to illustrate the growth of an organization, starting small, struggling to succeed, climaxing, and then gradually falling off.
And there’s an inevitable bell curve when it comes to our lives.
We grow, we find our path, we get ideas and pursue them, we get very busy, in demand, then later not so much.
It’s never a comfort to sense the peak has passed. We can get frustrated wondering why things aren’t happening as they once did. But, when we realize there’s a bell curve, at least we get perspective.
It’s another truth that sets us free.
My dad, at 96, is at an extreme edge of his curve. He was highly active in his middle years, and kept that energy going for a very long time. But of course eventually he slowed down. Whether he thought about it or fought it, I don’t know. Now he’s at peace with doing very little.
That’s just how life is. At a certain point the energy’s gone and we don’t care. But there’s still quite a bit of life on the second side of the curve when we do care. And that’s what I’m talking about.
Happily, new bell curves can grow out of existing ones.
It’s not uncommon for an organization to receive new life. With the infusion of new vision, a new leader or a new idea it can take off again, making use of the strength already accrued. It’ll also mean shedding some of the dead weight that holds onto the status quo. If those forces are too strong, the new life will never happen. But it is possible.
It’s the same in our own lives. When one area of strength peaks . . . even our main identity . . . another can be born. A new bell is established and off we go again. And again. And again.
One of the keys is to not wait until the current curve has begun its descent. The trip down is not as exhilarating as was the trip up and we can lose heart. But if it has already peaked, fret not. There’s another adventure waiting, another learning, another offering to be made.
So let those bells ring. And the more the better.
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As always, feel free to tell me what you think . . . and share it with others.
Our Lives Together
Its About Life
12:57 pm
Hello Hyatt,
Have you considered the relationship between our life’s ‘bell curve’ and living on one’s laurels? Another word for that is complacency. If we were speaking of a bell curve of the life of a business, complacency is a death nail. In our relationship to Christ, it’s similar to living on the past efforts of service to the Lord. This is what I think about when I get tired and want to sit back, but then I remember that I want to finish well. So the opposite of complacency in my life is endurance; keep on keeping on.
Stay well.
2:46 pm
I have to agree with Fred, above. Our biological curve is one thing, certain to be “bellish.” However, as we decrease, Christ can increase, keeping our interior lives bubbling and alive. I’ve known folks in their 90’s who’s hearts are on fire even though their bodies are on severe decline. I love being around these saints… I want to be like them, finishing gloriously. So, I say, long live the bell, excluding the heavenly kingdom.
3:37 pm
Hyatt, thank you for this. Something you said resonated with me about the phrase, “we don’t have the energy and we don’t care.” It seems at one point we have the energy and don’t care, next we have the energy and do care, then we don’t have the energy but still care (sometimes even more deeply than ever) and lastly, we reach that terrible point where we don’t have the energy and could care less. Thanks for helping us plot our point on the curve. I’m grateful for the hope of new bell curves… Maybe that’s one of God’s mercies that are new every morning.
4:07 pm
So inspired and enlightened by you…..love your blogs .
I think you hit the nail on the head………as always.
Love it..
9:33 pm
Lovely Hyatt! I love how you spoke about this bell curve and how true it is that we are on one. Yes! We all are. I loved how you followed this up with the fact that we can get on other bell curves!! That bring so much hope! I love to know the —–hope ——in life!! Thank you! Blessings! Lisa
10:10 pm
I enjoyed the comments to your Bell Curve theory and, of course, your message that started it all. There’s been a bit of heaviness at the end of my ‘Bell Curve'(normal according to your message), that’s also recently been offering some peaks of unsuspecting lightness, like a sort of happy, quiet, secret. Reading what you wrote offered a sort of permission to not think too much about it but perhaps enjoy it as a Bell Curve theory allowing me to like where it’s taking me with freedom to grab on again with the new.
7:52 am
After an emotional week of putting my 96 year old father-in-law into assisted living this Blank Slate helps me to look at things from another perspective, thank you.
10:25 am
I am going to be praying for your dad……who I believe
is also, Hyatt.
Barbara Mitchiner
1:05 pm
thanks for this, hyatt – you’re always helping me keep on keeping on. i’m thinking i could use some words on pear shapes, as in my curves are diminishing…
3:32 pm
Just finished a bell curve with the passing of my dear mother…
The Lord Jesus was so faithful and close to us through it all.
You know when you go through such a thing, that a calm will come after the storm; or as you put it the end of the bell curve. And the peace is nice, but as you experience Jesus’ nearness and assistance with all that assails a person’s senses at a time like that, you wish you could always experience the person of Christ in such tangible ways…at least I do, but without the trauma part.