In a right triangle, there are two legs that meet at a right angle and a hypotenuse that connects the ends of those two legs and represents the shortest distance between those two points. There are certain relationships between the legs, hypotenuse, and angles of a right triangle that are constant and so useful that we’ve given them names. One of these is sine. The sine of an angel, often abbreviated to sin, represents the relationship of an angle with the leg opposite to that angle over the hypotenuse. Now it may just be pure coincidence that trigonometric sin and theological sin happened to be spelled the same, but I think we can learn a lesson about sinning against God and His angels by examining the sin of angles. Like the hypotenuse of a right triangle represents the shortest distance between two ends of a triangle, the covenant path represents the shortest distance between us and our Heavenly Father. Now, it is a fact of all right triangles that the hypotenuse is longer than either of the two legs of the triangle. However, the hypotenuse is still shorter than the lengths of the two legs combined together. The world would tempt us to believe that the covenant path is too long, that waiting on the Lord’s timing is too long. Just look at this adjacent path, and this opposite path. They’re both shorter than the hypotenuse. Just take those paths. And that’s where sin comes in. We choose the opposite of what we ought to do over the covenant path, just like the sin in math represents the opposite over the hypotenuse. The Beautiful thing about triangles is that if we do wander off the path and do the opposite thing we will still end up at our destination, but we’ll have wasted a lot of time and energy and heartbreak always trying to take the shortcuts and the easy ways out that end up adding together to make for a much longer and harder route than it would have been if we had just chosen to stay on the Covenant path which would get us to our destination much more quickly and with much less wear and tear on our hearts and minds. We can trust in the Lord and stick to the path and wait on His timing, or we can get fed up and go off on our own and when we are in a far off country we can finally hit rock bottom and realize that our way is not working out and we can come to ourselves and make the long hard slog back to the covenant path. Through the grace and power of the Atonement we can be forgiven and welcomed back to the fold and all that the Father has can be ours, but trying to find a shortcut to the end will only ever delay us from our final destination. Our Heavenly Father has already shown us the shortest path between two points. It is up to us if we want to follow His guidance or if we want to commit the sin of choosing the opposite way over His way.
