In the School of Life

In the School of Life
(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

While life may, indeed, be like a box of chocolates, I think it's also a lot like high school. I recall a little piece of wisdom from those early years that still seems to have relevance, today:


The Freshman knows not and knows not he knows not.
The Sophomore knows not, but knows he knows not.
The Junior knows, but knows not he knows.
The Senior knows and knows he knows.

It seems like everything starts all over when you leave school. That supreme confidence you have dissipates almost overnight. Suddenly, at least in the school of life, you're a Freshman again. There is SO much to know, and you really have no idea just how huge is your ignorance. Those can be trying years. Just as in high school, you encounter people who seem to have some key pieces of information to which no one has allowed you access; information for which you don't even know how to frame the request.

But then a decade flies by and you enter the Sophomore season. You experience some of life; have relationships, pay for things, get married, have kids, gain and lose some jobs. Soon you find that, while you certainly don't know everything, you at least are aware of your ignorance. There is a certain comfort, at that point, in having achieved some orientation. Having come to an understanding of what you don't know, you find you can begin to focus on what you NEED to know.

In the blink of an eye a couple more decades disappear; welcome to the Junior season. You spend this period doing a lot of things: raising your kids to adulthood, paying off mortgages, being active in the community, maybe going back for some more education, maybe trying to glue together your work experiences into something resembling a career. But all through this period there is in the back reaches of your thoughts this small voice that keeps asking, "Is this the right thing to be doing? Should I be better in some way? Are the choices I am and have been making leading to a good result?" The questions don't stop you; you keep doing. But you're just not sure . . .

And then one day . . . you just know. You know what you did right and you know what you did wrong. It's not perfect; you're not all-wise and all-knowing. But there is a comfortable certainty that you do, finally, understand many things about life; at least among those life things that are important to you. And if you've achieved this Senior season of life, you can pause and luxuriate in that certainty for a bit. Yes, there is time for a semi-victory lap. Take it. Enjoy the moment. Soak in it for a little while. After so many decades, it is just nice to finally feel like a high school Senior again.

There is a constant among these seasons of our lives, though; the dynamic tension between what is urgent and what is important. In every season we are faced with choices of how we will allocate our time and resources; and more often than not we address the urgent over the important.

They say one of the most difficult things to do in this life is NOT answer a ringing telephone. Try that sometime. It illustrates something about urgency. When we perceive something as urgent (urging us to action), it is very difficult to choose a different, perhaps even more important, activity at that time.

Oh, to be sure, there are urgent matters that are also important; that's how many of them came to be urgent in the first place. But there are also important things that arrive without the flare and blare of urgency. We know we need to do them, but . . . well . . . there are all those other things that need doing first! ;-)

It doesn't really matter, though, what or how much we know, or with what degree of certainty, if at the conclusion we've missed something of great importance. And it is into this relatively quiet moment that I wish to step with a suggestion.

Your spiritual development, if you are like most of us, has not gotten quite the time and attention as have some matters, perhaps more urgent seeming matters, over the years. Make some time for it. You'll have to, you know---make time for it. Our lives are too busy for the time to just make itself available for this very important thing.

There is a reason high school graduations are called "Commencement." But you don't have to wait for some official moment.

Start now. Whatever season of life you're in.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt
September 14, 2012

Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm 98:1-5 or Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
John 3:13-17

Join us Friday if you can. We're still meeting at Cafe Cappuccino (downtown Waco on 6th, near the Courthouse) at 8:00 every Friday morning, eating a delicious breakfast and kicking around thoughts on this week's scriptures.

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Who knows? This one may be one of the most important of your life :-)

Enjoy the week!