I wonder how we will view our lives from the perspective of the future. When we look back on days gone by, how we made decisions, the turning points, and the experiences gathered, what will be our individual and collective analysis? I see a lot of ignorance and blindness in the past. I did not know what I did not know and as a result I blissfully and enthusiastically ran down paths that were at best dead-ends, and at worse debilitating and life threatening.
Hindsight is always more clear than the future yet it seems that not much has changed in the decades past or in the present. I am not sure that anyone around me had any greater light. If they did they were not sharing! It is as if my life is a proof statement to the theorem that “ignorant zeal is worthless; haste makes waste.” (Proverbs 19.2)
There is a solution is we are willing to accept the risk. Those who are older can dialogue with those interested in discovering life in fresh ways. Learning is not a function of age but experience only comes through time. With experience comes the opportunity to learn, grow, share, learn some more, and give away whatever others find of worth. The cycle is never quite complete, yet it is in the process that one has the opportunity to experience the fullness of what life has to offer.
The risk with this path comes from two directions. The obvious is that rejection at some point is a given. Everyone dislikes rejection yet it is in being rejected that we gain another opportunity to love and frequently step back and rely totally on God. The second is often hidden. We may offer help in our blindness that is wrong. I frequently find that I learn more from my students than I am able to give. It is in this moment that I realize that I am truly blind; it is only through the Presence that any find light.
My blindness is real, so is yours. God is light.
