During the process of choosing my college major, I carefully studied the class requirements of each option. When I finally settled on English Education, there were two classes I dreaded taking, an intense survey of the works of Shakespeare and the history of the English language.
Oddly enough, both of those classes sparked a lifelong love of those two topics. I’m not sure why! Maybe it was due to the awesome professor I had in each class. Or maybe, I simply enjoyed learning about things that I had never studied so purposefully before.
Whatever the case, I still love the study of our language. It’s so interesting to me to discover the myriad of influences and stories behind the words and phrases we use to communicate with each other. It also never ceases to amaze me how intricate the English language really is or how winding the path that brought us many of those words and phrases.
And just when I think I know all about a certain expression, I inevitably come across information that shows me just how much I did not know.
For example, take the phrase “cutting corners”
Now, I know that this idiom usually pertains to doing something quickly and less thoroughly than needed. It involves performing a task in the easiest, cheapest, fastest way possible while sacrificing attention to details and actions that would positively impact the task. It also implies, in a roundabout way, a lack of character.
In other words, cutting corners is not a good thing – not at all. No one should ever cut corners in life.
But I wondered if this phrase has always meant the same thing. If so, where exactly did it come from?
Well, after a bit of online exploration, I found one writer who suggested that it originated in the early 1800s when cities and towns began to take on a more uniform look, with each block of every neighborhood boasting neatly manicured (and squared-off) lawns. It supposedly meant leaving the sidewalk and literally cutting across the corners of a lawn to shorten one’s journey.
Nope! I tend to believe that this phrase came about long before the evolution of modern, manicured lawns bordered by nice, neat sidewalks. It more than likely started with the biblical principles of generous gleaning as commanded in Chapter 19 of Leviticus.
Every good Hebrew farmer knew to not cut the corners of his fields but to leave them as a source of food for any poor and needy individual willing to come and glean for themselves from these field corners. (Rather than simply a handout, this law still required hard work from those in need. But that’s a whole other blog topic, isn’t it?)
History also tells us that the difference between a greedy farmer simply following the letter of this law and a generous farmer seeking to fulfill the heart of this command was evidenced by the size of the corners cut in his fields. Big corners cost a farmer more, much more, but they provided much, much more for his fellow countrymen.
Throughout my childhood, a real-life illustration of this Levitical law of generosity played out on Sunday School flannel boards with the biblical characters of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. As a child, it was a powerful, world-shifting story that taught me how one man’s generosity toward poverty-ridden widows forged his way into the lineage of earthly kings – as well as the King of heaven.
But sadly, that biblical concept of not cutting corners and selflessly sharing what we have with others does not appeal to our sinful, human nature. After all, we do not come into this world longing for adversity or pain and suffering. No! It’s exactly the opposite. We tend to always seek the easy road, the light load, and the best portion. Always.
So, the modern-day definition of cutting corners makes perfect sense to our flesh. No wonder we changed the gist of this idiom over the years from selflessly not cutting corners to selfishly cutting as many corners as possible; that’s the way of sin.
But beware, modern-day believers, for it’s also the way of death, hell, and the grave.
In fact, Matthew 7:13-14 warns readers to:
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Wow! Note that few find the gate to life, so it’s obvious that cutting corners won’t cut it when it comes to eternal salvation.
But take heart! According to Isaiah 35:8, there is hope, even for us foolish sinners:
And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
Yes, going astray is easy for those who cut corners in life. And for those who choose the Way of Holiness, it won’t always be an easy road.
Look at the biblical story of Naomi. She is the perfect example of one of God’s children who traveled a long, winding, and difficult path.
Naomi was married to a man from the tribe of Judah. They had lived in Bethlehem until a harsh famine hit the land. So, they took their two sons and moved to the foreign (and pagan) land of Moab as a way to stave off starvation.
While they were there, Naomi’s husband died, but thankfully, she still had her sons to look after her. Soon, her sons took two Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth, as their wives. But then, Namoi’s life took the worst possible turn when her two sons died as well.
Now, in case your Sunday School teacher was remiss in fully explaining this predicament to you with a handy-dandy flannel board, this set of circumstances left Naomi destitute. As a widow in a foreign land without any male family member whatsoever to care for her, she instantly became the lowest of the low on the rungs of that day’s social and cultural ladder.
At that point, Naomi knew her only hope for survival was to return to her homeland – and return to God. So that’s exactly what she did, and one daughter-in-law went with her. Even when Naomi officially released both newly widowed young women and encouraged them to return to their own families, Ruth refused to leave her mother-in-law.
Ruth’s tearful plea to Naomi offers us some of the most poignant and precious words in the entire Bible:
Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and worse, if anything but death separates me from you (Ruth 1:16-17).
In essence, this young Moabite woman refused to take the easy way out. She refused to think only of herself. Instead, Ruth selflessly pledged to forever commit herself to Naomi, to Naomi’s homeland, to Naomi’s people, and to Naomi’s God – no matter what it cost her.
When it came to Naomi – there would be no self-centered cutting corners for Ruth. None whatsoever. Not ever!
But let me tell you, God did cut some corners for His new daughter Ruth, and her beloved mother-in-law Naomi. And those corners were some large, bounteous, grain-filled corners in the fields of a wealthy man back home named Boaz.
God used those fields and that ancient Levitical concept of not cutting corners to ensure Ruth and Naomi with food, provision, and eventually, a home, and a child named Obed – the grandfather of King David and an ancestor of King Jesus.
Talk about divine blessings!
So, the next time you find yourself at one of life’s many corners, make sure you only cut the ones that will help someone else find their way to the King!
