God Is a Mathematician: Professor Belina Dulaney on Faith, Resilience, and “All the Math”

In this LifeWork Podcast episode, host Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Belina Dulaney, Assistant Professor of Natural Sciences – Mathematics at Williams Baptist University, to explore how God uses numbers, work, and hardship to shape a calling. From growing up in a single–parent home in small–town Arkansas to becoming a valedictorian with 52 college credit hours and eventually a college math professor, Belina shares how her mother’s unwavering work ethic and faith created a culture of consistency, integrity, and perseverance in their family.

Mrs. Dulaney opens up about becoming pregnant at 15, the loneliness that followed, and how the unconditional love she experienced from her mother and her church family became the crucible where her trust in Christ became real. She and Dr. Norman talk candidly about disappointment, expectations, and what it means when someone tells you, “You were almost perfect,” and how God meets us when our image of perfection collapses.

The conversation also dives into why so many people have a negative experience with math, why she jokes that she teaches “all the math,” and how she helps students see that “everybody does math every day” and that creation itself reflects a God who is a kind of mathematician. This episode will encourage anyone who has wrestled with failure, felt written off by others, or wondered how their work, their story, and even their struggles can be used by God in His larger equation for their life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to this episode of the Life Work Podcast. Today we are joined by a special guest, Belina Dulaney. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate you joining us because I know for you it's a big step of faith to do that. And I'm grateful you're willing to take that step.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Well, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Glad to do it. Been looking forward to this. And thank you for uh your patience in working out the scheduling in such a way that we can finally get you on here.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Oh yeah. I understand. I have a I have a pretty rough schedule to work around, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

You do, both on the professional and the personal side. Yeah. So tell our listeners who you are, what you do here at Williams.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Um, well, my name is Belina Dulaney, and I am uh the assistant professor of math here. So I just teach all the math. Uh anytime any I say that, somebody's like, Well, what do you teach? And I'm just like, all the math. Any, any of them, all of them.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

And I'm I'm sure that many of our listeners' eyes probably just glazed over like, yo, math teacher.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Yes, that is always the response. Anytime I say that I teach math, it's like, oh, you know, I just get a really negative response from somebody, or you must be smart. And I'm like, no, I just no, you must be smart.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yes, you are smart.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

No, and uh, but it's always it's always that because everybody has this really not everybody, but the majority of people have this really negative experience, I guess, with magic. I might be in that group. Yeah, I think there's a very large group.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

You know, in my discipline theology, we do have numbers, but you know, we have seven days, 40 days, 12 apostles, and we have three and one. And we don't have to make it work. It's God is three, God is one, and we just take it by faith and we can move on. But I'm sure there are those oh you gotta make it work. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah, yeah. It's um definitely not one of the more popular subjects.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

But very, very important, undoubtedly so.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Everybody does math every day, whether they want to admit it or not.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yes, God is a mathematician. I mean, if we look at the things around us, um, that's something that I teach in contemporary math is how can we see it? Um just around us.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

And I want to get into that. Uh I want to get into that to them in a minute, but first, I want our people to know more about you. So, where is home? Where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

I grew up in Truman, Arkansas, which is just about 50 minutes away from here.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Born there, raised there, grew up there?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yes. Um, I uh well, I was born in uh life started like pre-K in Dannis, Arkansas. I don't know. If you know that's where it's Johnny Cash is right. Um a little, I don't even think that there's anything there anymore other than that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Um but there's not a place to commemorate this is where Belina was born. Not next to this is where Johnny was born.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah, they didn't do anything like that. Um, but life started there, and um, and then my parents got divorced and um around age four, and then Truman.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

So you went to be with your mother in Truman? Yes. Okay. Any siblings?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I do. I do have a younger brother.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Okay. So how old was he when that happened?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Um baby.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Okay, wow. That must have been tough.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, um, it it was. Um, it was it was a good thing. Um, my dad had a lot of um, he was an alcoholic. Yeah. Um, so it was it was a good thing. Um and I think that for him the entire thing made him a better father because he became a recovering alcoholic uh for the majority of my life and um and became a better dad. I think it was more like a wake-up call, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

And um, but most of my life is spent with my mom and and um and and just her.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So you moved to Truman and your mom, I'm assuming, has to go to work outside the home? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

She worked in insurance, which she still does today.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Okay. Um she an agent?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Um, no, I honestly to this day. She's in customer service. Okay. In the insurance company. Um, I I don't even know really what she talks to banks a lot. I think they may insure banks.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

So you might want to call her this evening and say, I gotta ask today what you do. Uh what do you do, Mom?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Well, I've asked her, but it's still, you know, it's kind of it's one of those things it's hard to reprimander.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Okay, so the way she explains what she does to you is how I feel when you're explaining math to me. Okay. There you go. Uh, I'm sure, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

So uh growing up in a single parent home.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yes. And um, like I said, my dad, he definitely got better. Um, he worked on a cotton gin there between Dice and Le Panto. And, you know, we'd spend weekends with him once he did get better. And um, and then, you know, mainly just a strong mother with a really wonderful stepfather later on. And um, but yeah, that was that was mainly how I grew up.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

So I I'm intrigued to hear about this strong mother. When you say that, what comes to your mind? What do you think of, or what do you mean when you say my mother was a strong woman, a strong mother?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Um, she came from a difficult background, and um she just came from a very, very um uh difficult and and hard life and um built everything for us, uh for me and my brother. Um, you know, the her work ethic is unbelievable. And um, like what she instilled in me with work and love and uh consistency and um just presence um in the things that she had to overcome and the decisions that she had to make to be a a great mom and a great person. Um they're just so many things.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

So you of course this is the Life Work podcast, and we like to talk about theology of work, what the Bible teaches about work, vocation, and calling. And so you you you rang my bell when you said my mom's work ethic. So memories. What memories do you have of how she lived out that work ethic? And when you think my mom was a hardworking woman, she worked with integrity, consistency is on the words you use. What does that look like in daily life in your home?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Um, well, it just it really, you know, again, it's a single parent home. Um, she didn't go to college and she had worked in customer service, you know, in an insurance company. So it's not the highest paying job, um, but just the things that she the never missed a day always went and always just made sure that my brother and I had the best that she could give in in whatever way that looked. Um and never really, you know, un until you start to look back at it and you're like, oh, how did she make that happen? You know. Um, but it it just, I mean, consistency is the word. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

It just there's a lot to be said for that.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah, and just um just basic work ethic of going and doing and doing what you're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yes, when you're supposed to do it, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Showing up and um and being dependable, being an extremely dependable person, whether that's work or in life um as a mother. And it it's hard to explain.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Um, I'm I'm tracking with you on that.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Yeah, there's no there's no like one instance that creates a culture for your family, doesn't it? Yes, yes, it absolutely does. Because it was never there was never any question about like nobody ever had to tell me like you need to work hard, you know, or you need to do this. It was just this is what I'm supposed to do. This is why you were raised. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah. So uh this um I'm gonna get into this math thing in a minute. Did you grow up in church?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I did. Okay. Um she um I grew up in church with my mom, and um I I always knew God and and Jesus and and everything. And you know, I went to Sunday school and listened to the lessons and um and I I thought I was pretty serious about it, you know. I thought that like I understood and that I knew and I was fully present and and all of that. But it was it wasn't until uh teenage years that I it was like, oh, this is this is who God is.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So do you remember exactly when or how you came to know the Lord in in that way?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Yeah, so um I got pregnant at 15.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

And um I before that, I was a you know, captain of the cheerleading squad and very clicky, um, very just top of the world, nothing can really touch you, you know. Um, top of the class and and all of this stuff. And um all of that changed, you know, like the the top of the class didn't, but the people surrounding me did. Um it was kind of like an immediate abandoning um from all of these worldly people, um, except for my mom. And um, and it was pretty hard because you know, you're already 15 going through normal 15-year-old stuff, and then now you're expecting a baby, and um that amplifies things a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

And um and that sense of loneliness and isolation is where I truly started to trust and uh uh follow God because I had no other option. Um I had nothing, um, nothing that mattered. And I wanted my child to ha to not grow up um with nothing. Um I wanted him to know the unconditional love that my mother had put in me, and it it was no secret that she got that unconditional love from Jesus and um that's how she learned to convey that, you know, and um and that's how she learned to love and through her own hardships, and um so that's whenever I really started to rely on him, and um it's he literally carried me. Wow. Like it car it held me and carried me through everything that followed.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Wow. Wow. That's a lot for a 15-year-old young lady.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yeah, yeah. Um so um that was my tenth grade year. Okay, and I um just learned a lot about the people um during that time and and how um the things of this world are so temporary and um nothing like what we can receive from God. Um and like I said, I was raised in church and everything, and and truly, um, and I know this isn't everybody's experience, but my church family was the the family that didn't change, um, the family that didn't treat me any different. Um yes, it truly is. They wrapped me in love and grace and understanding and um which helped, you know, um to not feel uh neglected by the church in that time. Um and they that experience brought me even closer because I was like, okay, well, these are the people that are sticking, you know, what's making them stick? What's making this different? Um, what's making uh uh them not gossip and and just abandon or think that I can't do everything that I was doing, you know, like what uh again, top of the class and and all of a sudden like, oh, she's not gonna be able to do that, she's not gonna be able to do this. Um, you know, I you know how like if you're uh doing well, everybody everybody has expectations for you. Um whether they're close to you or not, they have expectations for you.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

And um I just had disappointed everyone. Um I vividly remember someone, a teacher, telling me, um, you were almost perfect. Um yeah, and I that that stuck with me, you know, like almost uh perfect, you know, per is perfect the word? Do I want to be perfect? Um and just the church and my mother, um, and my dad too, um, just standing by me. And obviously, you know, my mom experienced a lot.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

I was about to say, uh, had your mom remarried at this point or was it Yes. Okay, so your family of four went to five. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

And um she, you know, um by the way, I did math there.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Did you see that? I'm proud of you. I'm so proud. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Um, but she shit it with tough love and grace. And um again, her expectations didn't change. Like her top of the clock, like she didn't she never doubted that I could still do it. That I could still do everything, you know. Um, obviously not cheer.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Tenth grade.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Yes. And uh it was I took my final, the end of my tenth grade year. I I took the final that morning and I had him about five o'clock that afternoon. Um yeah. Um, it was a couple days after I turned 16 that little baby boy came into this world and changed everything for the good.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Okay. So tell us about the change. So I mean, obviously it's just a rolling avalanche of change for you.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yes. Um, and you know, I before before him, I had aspirations to go to like an Ivy League school. You know, like I just really um things came naturally, um, like in intellect-wise, I felt like. And I even, I mean, I lived into Harvard, I like started taking college hours, um, starting in tenth grade so that I could raise my GPA to above a 4.0 so that I could get in. I um was aware of the ACT score that I needed to have. Um I I either wanted to do that or I wanted to um go into the Peace Corps, which are two totally different things. Yeah. But um I, you know, I'm I'm only in the tenth grade, so that it's it's just one or the other. And obviously those are two totally different things.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

But um And this was pre yes, okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Pre, yeah. And um, but after him, it became more uncertain. Like all I all I wanted to do was succeed. And whatever I did, I wanted to succeed. I I didn't matter if it was school. Yeah, you know, I wanted to make sure that I kept my grades up. I wanted to make sure that I still graduated with above a 4.0. I wanted to make sure that I still took all the college classes I was planning to take um and succeed and create a good life for him in whatever way that looked like. And I would literally do anything to do that. Um, so I uh again, going back to my mom's work ethic, I wanted to obviously, I wanted to take care of my baby. And um, so you know, he was born, and then shortly after everything, I was like, okay, well, it's time to get a job. Like I need to get a job.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

And were you thinking about dropping out of school to just oh no. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

No, never.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Like I again, I was going to like whatever it took succeed.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Um, and and and I think a lot of that too was a little bit of um spitefulness. Because, you know, nobody thinks that you're going to. And um, and so it was like, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna still. Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna show you, you know. And uh so it's you know, started with small jobs like tutoring, and I worked at a wait as a waitress for a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

And so you are you're a sophomore junior in high school and you're and you're working, you're maintaining high standards of academic performance, and you're taking care of a newborn.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Okay. And obviously not on the cheer team, probably. No, no, I'm not on the team. I mean, that would have been remarkable if you had done that.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah, no, no, I'm not on any teams. I am just um again, just focusing on creating a good life for my baby. And um, so you know, a life became work and school. Um, and then like the next summer, I um started applying for like more jobs where I could have like consistent hours and stuff, and um you're younger, and even like work I worked at Burger King for like a day or two days, but then they would only schedule me. Like I looked at the schedule, and I had like four days in total over two weeks on that schedule, and I was like, I can't do this, you know. And um, so my dad working at the cotton gin, um, I started chopping cotton. And I love this.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Okay. Let's talk about this for just a minute. You started chopping cotton in a cotton field?

SPEAKER_00 19:27

In a cotton field with a heavy hoe, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

I mean Oh, I um again, even I through all this, it's not that it didn't seem hard. Um, it just I think that the drive was so direct and so instilled that there was no other option. Like there was it didn't matter. There was no other option. It was that's what I need to do, that's consistent. It's 12 hour day. I'm gonna get a good paycheck, I'm gonna do this.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

So th was this while you were in school or this was your summers? They're in the summer. Okay. Yeah. So when it's nice and cool.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Oh yeah, I know. So that that leads to my next job. Yeah. It was like um, I it was like end of May and through June, and then it gets to July. And um they had us, there was like a heat advisory, so they had us stop, which is when you know it's bad because they don't stop you, you know. They don't watch out for that. Um, but they had us stop and we went home a little bit early that day, and I went to go pick up uh my son from the babysitter, and I was just like, I'm tired, you know, and I'm not getting to see him very much. And um, and I knew it was worth it, you know, for sure. But she had said something like, Well, my cousins are opening a little diner down the road, they're still fixing it up and all of this. And um, so I was like, okay, well, can you watch him just a little bit longer? Let me go, let me just go over and ask. And I'm still in my yeah, I'm still in my flannel shirt. You're dressed for the interview, aren't you? I'm for sure dressed for an interview. Um, and I show up and he has a younger man working for him, and they're still fixing up the building.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

And um This is in Truman.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

This is in Truman.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

And I was like, I, you know, I'm just looking for a job, and he was so skeptical because, you know, I'm just a young girl, and um, but he was like, We're still fixing up this this place, and there's a lot of hard work that's in this, you know, like we gotta put up drywall, we're gonna be taking up tile, we're gonna be tearing down walls and all this stuff. And I was like, I can do it. I'm you know, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

And did you tell him what you had just been doing and maybe an hour before?

SPEAKER_00 21:49

I was like really, you know, again, not good at I just direct and didn't think it mattered, you know. I was just like, okay, I can do it anyway. Like, well, I'll give you like a week and we'll see. Um, well, after that week he ended up firing the other kid because he saw like I bet he might do he could he could be doing a lot more because she's doing a lot of this. And um, and I stayed, and even after like it was finished being built, I became a waitress there, and it just really worked out.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Okay, so you're a young mother, you're a high school student. Yes, you are working in the cotton fields. Did you make a full summer, or was this pivot in the first summer of this pivot was in the first summer? Okay, so you did some cotton chopping, then you went to construction, yeah. Then you went to serving uh serving, waiting on tables. Yes. Belina, um, uh you had you had a high regard on in my scale of people that I respected and admired, but you just have gone through the roof. I mean I mean your mom's work ethic is just shining out of you as a high school student has had a stumble and you you're picking it up and you're moving forward, and I'm assuming you're still involved in your church and they're supporting you in this, walking with the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

That says a lot about your mom.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

And the grace of God.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Because yes. Um, because she at no at no point did she ever say, Well, you have to get a job, or you need to do this, or you need to do that. It was just natural. And then in every instance, she was always like, Well, God just really takes care of you with jobs. God just really takes care, like it in that, in that transition, God just really takes care of you with jobs.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

And then I we need to make t-shirts of that.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

I mean he just I love that. Yes, and he did in I mean, every transition, Dr. Norman, every transition I've ever had in a job has been, I don't know how. I don't other than God. Like I I've been uh from there, I was a bank teller and a reporter. I wrote for a newspaper for a little bit. In high school. No, this this was later on. Okay. But um, I mean, it just yeah, it he just really carried me through.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Um so I I want to get to the later years of next episode, but I want to get you through high school.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

So we get ready to graduate. Yes. Did you maintain that 4.0?

SPEAKER_00 24:26

Um, yeah, I actually graduate graduated valedictorian of my school.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Um, and I um and even then I remember it being almost anticlimactic, like it was just like not a big deal to me, like because it was just God did this, you know, my mom did this. Like I think my entire speech was about my mom. Um because she carried me through and she taught me the love of the Lord and what that can do for you, and um and the trust um and um she yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

So I Do you still have that speech?

SPEAKER_00 25:12

I probably do somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

You need to find that. I do frame it and give it to her.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Uh I think she she has it. Okay. Yeah. I um the what's funny is I think that my son was crying during the part that uh I was talking about her because uh she said that she couldn't listen here, but I'd gotten choked up and everyone started clapping and she didn't know why. Um because they, you know, because uh it it was emotional. But um I'm sure. But yeah, and I graduated with 52 college credit hours. Um so I you know, I knew that I was gonna go to college. Really didn't know for what.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Um other yeah, I just so let's leave it there. Okay, stick a pen in it and continue the conversation the next episode. You good with that?

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Um sounds great.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

All right, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Yep.