My friend JR reminds me that this summer marks the fiftieth anniversary of both his and my moving to Little Rock from Montgomery, Ala. to be juniors at Hall High School. Neither of us knew a soul, and speaking for myself I was sure my world had come to an end. I didn’t even know JR in Montgomery. I had just gone through a similar move a year earlier from Memphis to Montgomery, where it was tough enough for an adolescent kid to make friends, but I had. But the thought of having to do it again was more than a fifteen year-old boy could fathom. My world was over, I was convinced.
Well it seems things didn’t end, my life did go on, and I made many new friends who I have to this day including JR. It’s hard to convince an adolescent in the middle of a crisis that there is light at the end of a tunnel and life will go on and out of what seems tragedy comes opportunity. Perhaps God knew that moving to LR would hardly be the worst thing that would happen to me in my life, and was preparing and teaching me.
A fifteen year old boy is about as receptive as most of us to philosophy when tragedy strikes, when we think all is lost, or when we think our world has come to an end, but the fact that life goes on and out of tragedy comes opportunity continues to be true. I don’t mean to minimize or ignore the pain that comes with tragedy, but over time it will subside.
As our meditative week comes to an end concentrate on those moments when you thought your life had ended – a lost romance, a lost game, a job given to another, or much more serious tragedies that befall each and every one of us. Meditate on the opportunities they created or create.
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