As we go through life we learn lots of important lessons like not touching the hot stove or not jumping from a high branch on a tree, spitting into the wind; those kinds of things.  Some of these lessons we have learned the Hard Way” and others, perhaps we listened to someone teaching us.  So that perhaps others may benefit from our life lessons, we all need to do what Kris and I call; “Sharing Our Stuff”

So what is Sharing Our Stuff?  If you have been blessed with figuring certain things out in life or through your hard times, have learned some tough lessons in your life, share them with others.  I have been blessed with figuring out how I relate to God, I have a great marriage, a good dose of creativity, a talent of teaching and a lot of other skills and talents. My feeling is that it is my duty to share what I have learned with others who are coming up behind me.

We can look at this using the analogy of life being like a dark underground cave.  Imagine you and several other people are wondering around in this huge underground cave with catacombs leading off in every direction.  You break away from the crowd and wracked with fear and anxiety you inch your way along making slow but steady progress,   After several hours and a lot of near misses of nearly stepping off into an abyss at one point and coming upon a dead end at several other points, you see a glimmer of light far off into the distance.  Suddenly your adrenaline re-energizes you and you move faster toward the light, all the while being careful again not to step into a hole or off of an underground cliff.  Finally, you are able to see vegetation mixed in with the light and you realize what you had hoped for; it really is the outside.  As you get closer to the opening, you can smell the fresh air and scents of flowers and foliage.  You finally step through the opening and drink in a deep breath of the much-anticipated fresh air!

So the question is, do you hike back to your car and drive home so you don’t miss going out with your friends that night?  Oh wait, your friends . . . oh yeah, they are still back in the cave trying to figure a way out of the inky black maze.  Here is my point, as a friend or even a fellow human being, don’t you it owe to those folks back in the cave to go back and show them the way out?  Let your trials and successes benefit someone other than yourself?

Life is like that; we struggle through figuring out a phase of our life whether it is battling with an addition, raising a challenging teenager, figuring out our relationship with God.  There are o lot of people behind us in our walk through life who could benefit from what we have learned as we have gone through ours.  Haven’t we also benefited from someone else sharing their lessons?

Share Your Stuff . . . Someone needs it!

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