Think of a lesson you learned when you were young. Not a classroom lesson, a life lesson. Can you think of one? I know a couple teenagers who’s father is in the hospital dying from multiple failing organs. There is nothing modern medical can do, so they wait for the end to arrive. That’s a tough life lesson when you are only sixteen or nineteen. To see someone you care about withering away because their poor lifestyle choices have damaged their body to the point of failure. Wow, it would be a lot for any of us at any age.
This quote reminded me that we learn and often much later we actually understand. Death is a tough one. Knowing someone and then knowing they are no longer alive. It feels a bit surreal and strange, yet a part of life. None of us get out of there alive. As someone who is older, wiser and has experienced many things I have the opportunity to help those young men process through their tragedy. It may not be today, it may be months away before we are able to be together and speak and digest all that they experienced in those hospital days. It is not my job to tell them, it is my job to listen and hear what they are feeling, thinking in order to help them understand.
Let me encourage you to think back about that life lesson you learned way back when. What did you remember and how have you process through it now? Youth gives us a raw and unencumbered perspective. Age and wisdom arrive later to help us “see” the situation through a different lens, often bringing peace and understanding. Think about how that situation helped you become the person you are today. What wisdom it has provided, what life lessons you learned, and how your compassion for others has poured out of that situation.
First we learn, later we understand. Spend time today understanding your early life lessons. They become relevant to who we are today because of time and perspective.
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