I can remember my school days quite well.
With every passing year of my life the lessons learned in that budding time of homeroom, homework, tests and pretests are still with me to this day. Young and impressionable, my psyche was a naked template from which my various teachers and mentors put down a foundation that I would stand on for a lifetime. Sure, it goes without saying that my parents were the biggest influence on who I am today, but for the sheer diversity and quantity alone, my teachers meticulously filled in the little cracks that were there to be topped off by their professional attentions.
To find parallels in all things has always been my gift, although I didn’t realize this until recently in my life. My thought processes can quickly “see” the relation between two things that for the most part do not share any obvious D.N.A. on the surface, but effortlessly I can always find the common denominator mutually held. It’s always been this way for me as long as I can remember, and it has made it where this uncomfortable and unwanted entity called boredom has never sought out my company for too long because my mind just scares it away each and every time.
Well tonight while driving my crowded bus, my mind shifted away from the very entertaining conversations overheard that would outperform a Chris Rock stand-up comedy routine each and every time, and into the deepest recesses of my mind where so many creative thoughts flow intensely without restraint.
Thinking more deeply about my days in school, I thought about the people whose lives are bound to mine forevermore because of the mutual life launching pad that we shared in that time period not knowing where we would end up in life upon our own personal trajectories. It’s interesting to look back and then see where everyone is now. Some have become successful, some have become shocking disappointments while others have gone on to live very stable nondescript tranquil lives where nothing about them is sensational yet neither boring.
You can tell in hindsight why some of our more tragic stories transpired the way it has when you compare the actions of your classmates to the fates that they had to face as an adult who were made to understand what the word accountability meant in the fullest sense of the word. Did it really surprise you when you saw the elementary school class bully on the television nightly news arrested for attacking a police officer on a routine traffic stop?
Did it surprise you that the quiet young lady who always studied hard and stayed out of trouble later on became a prominent physician with great ease because her mind was more into the lessons than the fleeting image of youth that many narcissistic young ladies get caught up in while gazing into their bathroom mirrors?
Did it really surprise you that the well developed young lady in high school who was “very popular” with the boys between classes on the dark stairwell who had “that” reputation for doing what the other girls wouldn’t do ended up pregnant at sixteen and ten years later had seven more children, living in the projects, on welfare, destitute and strung out on crack?
School is a place where the faster one internalizes the lessons offered by the instructors and scholars is the faster one is equipped to live a relatively trouble free life. Trouble free in the sense that YOU won’t do anything foolish to put yourself in a bad position, because when you really look into it we do the most damage to ourselves by foolish our choices.
So how we do in school is really the precursor to the kind of life we are going to live, you can set your aim high from young and succeed or you can drag yourself along dreading that place and find yourself living the same way years from now. Does it really surprise you?
In school you are given rules. Break the rules and you will face the consequences. In our youthful foolishness we sometimes try to figure out ways to break the rules but after a time we realize that we weren’t as slick as we thought we were. We has specific tasks to complete by a designated time and were reprimanded and punished within reason to teach us the lesson of being punctual with our assignments. Hopefully, these lessons were internalized and transferred onto our lives as we grew up to become adults. If we needed help or really didn’t know what to do, our teacher was always there to give us the guidance that we needed to complete the work at hand. The teacher wouldn’t do it for us, but he/she watched over us with care making sure that we all absorbed the meaning behind the work.
Other classmates would come and go. Some would go through years with us in the same classes while others were there only for a season. Some we couldn’t pull ourselves away from night and day and some we just couldn’t stand. The same went for our instructors, some who taught us valuable lessons were still not appreciated at the time but were loved in hindsight while others we just loved no matter if they taught us well or not.
Those school days felt as though they would last forever while we were there with our shortsighted selves. You see, we didn’t understand the passage of time because we were only on this earth but for a very short period of time. Now we understand how brief it truly was but although it may have been brief, it was pivotal to the rest of our natural lives. Isn’t it wonderful we now can see the importance of our school days? I just wish that those who come into the world behind us understand how important it is also but from the looks of things we are truly living in a totally different day.
But let us take from the lessons learned as a child in school and transcribe it into what we know about life…….
How we do in life is really the precursor to the place we will eventually dwell in for eternity, you can set your sights on all that is righteous and edifying to God’s will from now to be saved or you can drag yourself along with the hell-bound worldly indulges of sin and find yourself in damnation for an eternity but will it really surprise you where you will end up after looking back on the life that you’ve lived?
In life you are given divine law. Break those God given laws and you will face the consequences. In our world foolishness we sometimes try to figure out ways to break the rules but after a time hopefully we realize that we weren’t as slick as we thought we were. We all have specific tasks to complete by a designated time and will be permanently reprimanded and punished forever after knowing that we really should have listened to what our God told us to do through the Holy Scripture. Hopefully the lessons that we have learned in our youth were internalized and transferred into our adult lives so that we can avoid eternal hellfire. If we need help in this world and have situations that we don’t know how to handle, our God will always be here for us to give us the foolproof guidance and strength that we need to complete our life missions at hand. God will never do it for us, because He has also given us free will, but He will always watch over us to make sure that we have everything necessary to do His earthly work.
Other people will come and go in our lives. Some will go through the years with us in our common path while others are there only for a time and season. Some of our friends/acquaintances we just can’t pull ourselves away from night and day and some of them we just can’t stand. The same went for our Elders growing up, some who taught us some valuable lessons were still not appreciated at the time but were loved in hindsight while others we just loved no matter what example of righteousness they brought into our lives or not.
Those days growing up and doing all kinds of crazy things that may not have been proper in God’s eyes we thought would last forever while we were there with our shortsighted selves. You see, we don’t yet understand the passage of time and how short this life really is. But one day we will truly know how brief it was but while it is a short time, it is pivotal to the rest of our eternal lives. won’t it be wonderful to make it to heaven and to then understand the importance of our earthly walk? I just wish those who come into the world behind us understand how important it is also but from the looks of things the Devil is devouring so many of us as we are truly living in the end days…….
But to repeat the title of this blog that had been screaming out to my conscious mind to post up here tonight for someone who needs to hear this to absorb…….;
Never forget that God is “The Supreme Professor” in the classroom that is your life!
