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So after years of enduring jesting and jeering from her peers about her delayed onset of puberty Kelly felt it was time to do something. How could she explain her ‘lack’ of breasts and pubic hair? Everyone else now had boys look at them and ‘want’ them for their curves and smooth soft skin.

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Again she sat there waiting for some dude to walk up to her and ask her out to the end of year dinner party and dance. It seemed like she would end up being the last resort for the rejected guys or maybe she’ll settle for her brother once again, just to escape the geek squad from coming after her.

What was wrong with her, why wouldn’t any decent fellow or maybe her life-time crush and strike partner in the football team even look in her direction? He seemed to enjoy her company on the pitch; but what was 12year old Kelly still doing on the boy’s football team anyway?

A tom boy she was, not by choice though but by genetics. Unlike other girls she was yet to start sprouting breasts nor did she have those curves the boys seemed interested in. Menstrual cramps, painful as the other girls made them seem, had become a constant craving for Kelly.

Then came the final straw that broke the camel’s back. At 10, Kelly’s younger sister Grace was experiencing her first period. It was time to do something, enough of believing mummy saying “some people are just late bloomers sweetheart”.

Many of the other girls in a bid to enhance their development had taken to steroids so after weeks of being loyal to the ‘girl’s click’ at school she was given her first dose and then came the next and the next and so on and so forth. Good enough for her within 4months she was ‘feeling like a woman’. In came rolling the boys and yes, you said it by the end of the year, Kelly had options #wink#.

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At 16, and though now off the steroids, Kelly was no longer growing but this wasn’t something she was going to worry about, after all her short stature made her figure even more prominent.
This figure was something she had wanted her entire life, probably the only thing she had wanted more was to attend the Carey aviation school and become the first female pilot in her country a dream which was now only one exam away.

So after writing her finals she applied to the aviation school and going by her grades, was certain of a placement there.
Then came the day for the physicals and Kelly hit a road block at the very first step, at 1.4metres she was too short to be a pilot, even for a female.

Then it dawned on her that her delayed puberty might just have been God’s plan to ensure that she kept growing for as long as was needed. By taking steroids early on, she had forced her epiphysis to close too early so stopping her growth earlier than should have.

Kelly went home, dejected with no one to blame but herself.

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It however doesn’t end with dark and gloom, despite her mistake her drive for this dream was strong and unrelenting so she sought options to help her achieve her dream and the necessary height. So it was, that after 5years of repeated and painful sessions of ‘distraction osteogenesis’ she attained the desired height.

It must have taken another 5months or so for her to learn to stand then walk again and eventually even run before she could reapply to Carey aviation college.

Kelly went on to graduate second in her class and flies the intercontinental route with Clearview Airlines.
She did accomplish her dream but it took longer than she had hoped and when I asked her why, she gave a rather queer answer, “its because I tried to take a short-cut”.

You see, I always thought short-cuts would take less time; that is why they are so named isn’t it? John Maxwell seemed to agree with Kelly when he said “the longest distance between two points is a shortcut”.

This issue of short-cuts is not a new one; I love to remember my chief high priest who was in every way a man like me, having the same passions et al. He had often told of His death, being so convinced of its necessity that he would rebuke Peter and the devil Peter trying to talk him out of it.

However when the reality of this death came closer he was almost willing to seek a way out.

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Mark 14:36 “Abba father, everything is possible with you. Take this cup away from me…”
In essence let us find another way to save these people; one with less pain and suffering maybe, without the nails and whips and insults and vinegar.

Thank God though, that he remembered there that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins so he continued and said
“…yet not what I will but what your will be done”.
He knew that as a human his will was always going to be to seek an easy way out, a shortcut.

Why do we choose shortcuts anyway?

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For some it’s a lack of understanding of God’s ways. The truth though is that God hates shortcuts, there always are those things he wants us to experience along the way. Things which we will miss out on if we choose to follow a path which is different from the one he lays out for us.

As with Kelly, if we miss those experiences then though we arrive at our expected destination at some point we will be found to be ‘short’ - lacking some value which is much needed to fulfill a calling.
Some choose shortcuts because they are lazy and so see what they call an opportunity and jump at it rather than follow the leader all the way through to the end.

For Kelly, it was the error of comparison, she saw herself in the light of others and tried to measure her shadow with theirs, not taking cognizance of their different stand points.
Think about a light bulb and two people standing at different points away from the bulb. You would expect to have shadows of different heights irrespective of which of these two people is actually taller.

Probably a common factor for most people is the ‘easy-way-out mentality’. We all want the seemingly easy way to our goal but it never does work out. Ask Gehazi, he felt taking a gift from Naman was his way to prominence and wealth, the opposite was his end.

Let us stick to the path and allow God be our guide. Never fret when you feel a need to ask Him for an easy way out but don’t forget to ask too for His will to supersede yours.
God bless

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....................................in appreciation to @sirknight