It’s hard during the teen years, no doubt about it. But keep in mind none of us is unique in this regard. I used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer regularly. It was great entertainment but with the odd wise word carefully worked into the dialog. There was a scene where one of her fellow high schoolers was perched high up in a bell tower and threatening to jump. She, of course, saved the day as all blond, cute superheroes are wont to do. But the telling line was this; the student who wanted to end it all complained long and loud about how difficult and painful life was and that no one cared or even knew about his pain. Her response was, Of course no one knows about your pain, we’re all consumed every day with our own.
Billy Graham, in his 90’s, was asked to reflect on his lifetime of preaching and raising a family. One of his remarks was that, many decades after it all began, he could look back and realize how fast life passes us by. I’m beginning to see this too. I can vividly picture specific moments from when I was 11, 14, 17 and many other stops along the way as though they had only just happened. That’s an indication at the speed with which we course across the earthly sojourn.
But here’s something I’ve never told anyone before. Those moments took place when I was acutely aware of the temporary nature of life, the fleeting time that meant every second was gone forever once it had passed. I won’t bore you with a long dissertation on them but will relate only one.
In the summer of 1968 I was eleven years old. My dad was a university professor so we spent all summer at the lake. One very ordinary evening my younger brother and I were out playing beside the cabin. It was a Friday and the neighbors, an elderly couple I liked very much, had just arrived for the weekend. They dropped over shortly after we had eaten, later in the evening. When I saw them talking with my dad I closed my eyes and said, “I will remember this one moment forever”. And ever since then I can, in my mind, zip back to that Friday evening and not just picture the scene, but remember the angle of the sun, the cool temperature, the wind on the lake, the buzz of the insects, everything.
The point of all this is that life, even at its most challenging, stressful, hateful and angry, takes place within tremendous beauty. It’s there for us at any time we want to notice it. Years from now you may look back at your life now and choose to see something other than that which consumes you at the moment. It’s all good, my friend, but it’s also going to overwhelm us at times, possibly most of the time. But if we can find that beauty and cling to it when we need to, it will help carry us through to the end we seek. Blessings, always.
