Do you know what the second mystery in life is all about?
In my previous article, I proclaimed the first mystery in life that is so incredibly hard to explain. But, I’m not done yet. There is another mystery that we don’t usually grasp when we first hear about it either.
Again, you’d think by this time in history that we would have figured out a way to convey this wisdom so that everyone could get their minds around it. You’d think it would be so well understood that no one, and I mean no one, would be caught by surprise by it.
Yet, millions are surprised. Millions wake up one morning and go, “Oh, that’s what they meant when they told me that.” Unfortunately, this is usually well down the path in our journey.
Getting a handle on today’s mystery early on will open up doors of opportunity that you could miss. It is an important mystery to understand for living life to the fullest.
Here’s the Second Mystery That Cannot Be Explained
Again, despite the fact that very, very few ever really grasp the full meaning of this mystery until much later in life when it doesn’t matter so much anymore, I’m going to give it a go. I’m going to try to explain it in hopes that it will make a difference for someone.
This second mystery is just as hard to understand as the first. I’ll admit that I didn’t really get it. I know that others much older and wiser than me tried to explain it to me, but I failed to understand. It remained a mystery to me and only now do I see its most of its meaning.
Here is the second mystery that cannot be explained:
The Precious Simplicity of Youth
The precious simplicity we enjoy in our youth is a mystery. It is hard to understand until it is gone. People try to tell us to live it up, enjoy it while we can and to pursue our dreams before the opportunity slips away. Most of us fail to grasp the full breadth of this mystery.
Remember the days when you had nothing to worry about? Remember when you spent your days riding your bike, soaking up the sun, swimming, playing, creating art, watching cartoons and dreaming about your next toy? We created whole worlds in our imaginations back then.
Slowly, we became teenagers. We began hanging out with our friends, having boyfriends and girlfriends, learning to drive, cruising around town, going to the drive-in, cheering on our high school teams and thinking about what we wanted to be when we grew up. We were happy, carefree and relishing in our new found freedom.
After high school, we felt the world was ours to conquer. We were invincible with big dreams and high expectations. It was an exciting place to be. About this time, someone probably tried to explain to us this mystery. We probably dismissed them because we thought we had it all figured out.
We just couldn’t conceive of how we would fall for the same traps that our parents fell into. That’s the way we saw it back then.
We didn’t understand how life sneaks up on you. We didn’t know the weight of responsibility. We didn’t really know what it meant to grow roots and to get busy. We thought we had our whole lives ahead of us. We believed we would have plenty of time to do all the things we wanted.
Of course, adulthood comes with a lot of complexities that are hard for young people to grasp. We get jobs, careers, businesses, contacts, networks, friends, families, mortgages, payments, bills and children. We don’t get them all at once, but we get them and one day we wake up with all of this and more. The simplicity of our youth has slipped away.
We have a lot more to consider now. People depend on us. We have responsibilities. Yes, some of them are good. Some of them we love, but they also hold us in place. They limit our choices and our options.
It isn’t so easy now to chase our dreams. They seem too risky, too distant.
That time we wanted to spend living in Europe? It is a distant memory. That shot we wanted to take at making it on the stage? It seems a little too far-fetched now.
The precious simplicity of youth is a fading memory. Honestly, I yearn for some of that simplicity at times. My life is full. It is good, very good, but weren’t those the days?
What would it feel like to be carefree again? If only the mystery would have been clearer to us. Would we have drank deeper? Would we have pressed on despite our fear? Would our lives be different now?
It is all hidden in the veil of the mystery.
The Two Mysteries in Life That Cannot Be Explained
These are two mysteries that cannot be explained until you live them and your eyes are opened. They both have a lot to do with the quality of your life. Our understanding of both seems so lacking at times. I know my understanding was very small and is only now really beginning to grow. I hope I’ve given you some things to think about and to contemplate.
Photo by Jaci Berkopec
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Some people’s childhoods were not as carefree as yours. I like my life much better now.
.-= Jersey Mom´s last blog ..Ancient Aliens on History Channel =-.
Jersey Mom – I know that not everyone has a positive childhood experience. I’m grateful for the good times I had. I’m sorry that yours wasn’t as positive. However, it seems that you’ve made the best of your situation now. That’s awesome!
I have never forgotten when I was a kid and my mom told me that I should enjoy being a kid and not always wish to be older, because soon enough it will happen. Thankfully, I heeded that advice fairly well, and have enjoyed each stage of life without spending all my time yearning for the next; which also means I am not starting to look back and yearn for the past, either. But I do agree, no one really understands the responsibilities we acquire in adulthood until we already have them.
.-= Maya´s last blog ..Buried in Debt =-.
Maya – Good for you that you really embraced your youthful years. Your mother gave you some wise advice. I certainly don’t believe, like some do, that those were the best years of my life and I squandered them. However, I’d sometimes like to recapture the carefree and happy-go-lucky feeling of my youth.
Everything that you’ve said is so very true. I feel like I have a lot of fun in my life but we probably all have days when we wish we could be without all those extra responsibilities that come with adulthood (I know I do). We can’t wait to grow up and then we become nostalgic about our younger years. I think responsibilities can cause us to become fearful where the innocence of youth allows us to take more risks. Both can have their goods and bads.
.-= Tina@RideonToys´s last blog ..The Power Wheels Little People Tot Rod Provides 2 Stage Learning =-.
Tina – I’m sure you are right that fear comes with responsibility if we let it. Also, with the fear comes pressure. The pressure creates stress. The stress drains the enjoyment from our lives. We’ve got to work hard to keep our fear under control. I guess it was just a lot easier when we were young.
I’m with Jersey Mom. I hated my childhood, and it was anything but carefree. So glad to be an adult! Nothing beats adulthood (and yes, seeing as how I’m pushing 40, I’ve lived through enough adulthood to figure this out).
And BTW, not everyone goes gaga over babies, either. It’s a mystery to me what people see in a baby….and I speak from experience.
Ah well. To each his own!
I remember cowering under my mother’s fists. I remember her telling me she wished I was never born. I remember coming home after work in my late teens and taking my kid brother (11 years younger) out of the house – to the movies, the hamburger stand, the beach, fishing, ANYTHING so that his childhood did not turn out like mine. He was my saving grace.
Now all these years later (I’m 43)…I’m married to a man who has betrayed me in the biggest way, depriving me of motherhood.
Sorry to be a killjoy, but life is not all sunshine and innocence. Kudos to you all for having fantastic lives and being able to see the wonder in the world. I’ve spent most of my life looking for the positive, but the older I get, the more cynical I become.
Carefree teen years? Feeling of invincibility, yes. Carefree, no. I remember well the says when a zit made me stay inside. I teach high school, and the pressures have increased on kids, with no lunch breaks becoming more and more the norm. The insecurities, the painful hormone fueled love dramas, the cruel comments of cliques, the desperate need for acceptance…I’ll take being an adult anyday.
I had a pretty good childhood in a middle classed family, and lif got harder and harder for me between the age of 20 and about 46. So hard that I spent a lot of time
living in the past, reminiscing. Then at 46 I really hit the wall…..I had a tremendous suffering in my life that brought everything to a head….there was so much suffering that I felt like I could barely get out of bed in the morning.
Sometimes the most terrible things we go through can turn out to be abolutely the
best for us. You can’t see it when you are in the middle of the suffering, but there really is lighrt at the end of the tunnel. It has taken over 10 years since that suffering for my nerves to relax and me to just be at peace.
I had been a milquetoast christian for many years, neverless a real believer who had very real experiences of Christ in my life. The big suffering that hit me at 46 caused me to fully give myself to the Lord Jesus Christ and quit fooling around with my life.
When you see the Lord Jesus face to face in a situation like that, the effect on your person is massive and you can never be the same after that. That was my Peniel, where I met God face to face. He is more than real, and His name is Jesus Christ. At that time the suffering in my life was so enormous that I couldn’t bear to live one minute outside His presence. That was the when I really met the One I had believed in for so many years. That was the beginning of real transformation in my life. Not just knowing teachings about Jesus or a lot of knowledge about the Bible, but coming to intimately know the living Person of Jesus.
Frfiends, God is very, very real and He is fully embodied in His Son Jesus Christ. Anyone who says otherwise is fully in the dark, and is being deceived. He is the only way to come to the True God and to know the True God. He has only one Name and that name is Jesus Christ. All other gods are false. Jesus Christ is more than real.
I don’t live in the past anymore, listening to the old music and reminiscing about my youth. I have found out that my best days are right now. And I know I have a very bright future ahead of me, where for eternity I will enjoy the unsearchable riches of Christ with millions of other believers like me. To call on His name, “Lord Jesus, I love you! Come into me and fill me to oveflowing. I give myself fully to You. You are the Real God and Eternal Life. Be more and more real to me every day.”
Time is very short. This age of degradation and evil will soon to its grand finale. He will return to rule and reign on this eart with his faithful and overcoming believers. This is not a cleverly devised fairy tale. This is not trying to be good, religious or just going to church. This is getting to know and experience this living Person, Jesus Christ. If you open to Him He will also be so real to you. Time is very short.Don’t wait. Start to enjoy His eternal life right now!