Why Understanding Is the Key to Everything

TWO different situations on the same day proved to me the depth of life in the mode of understanding. Understanding is the key to everything.

The first situation involved a young lady who was estranged from her parents and was missing them so much. They were missing her, too. It was an enforced separation for a time due to a project she was working on in a remote location. Yet, homesickness threatened to derail her progress. Her parents had given her every backing on this new vocation. The challenge was one of simply sticking at it.

The second situation involved a mother of five, who was in hospital recovering from surgery that had complications. A relatively simple procedure hadn’t gone to plan. Pain management was now an issue and the woman’s ability to endure the pain was stretched past the limit. She wanted it ended. Her hope had completely evaporated.

Both of these situations prove that understanding is our greatest aid. In both situations there is pain. In both situations there is a sought-after outcome and a situation to run from. But both these situations illustrate how getting our own way runs cross grain against the truth of the presented reality.

Understanding is where our thoughts and feelings match God’s thoughts and feelings.

It’s incredibly hard!

We may feel as though we simply cannot go on. But we lack only understanding. Understanding doesn’t promise us a way out of the things we loath. It simply aligns us with God’s truth. Understanding doesn’t miss a beat. Understanding cannot lie. Understanding agrees with God in how and why to keep going the hard way.

If, in the first situation, the young lady can knuckle down, she will get through. She needs to be able to discuss her homesickness with someone who has empathy, warmth and genuineness — a person-centred counselling approach. Such an approach will soften appropriately enough a very tough direction, to keep going; that is, to find a resolution beyond complaining. Understanding knows that if she can get through, then it will be right to interact with her parents.

If, in the second situation, our mother of five is able to bear up under the pain, and she will need copious support, she will prove a good level of understanding. It’s possibly the hardest thing she will ever do. And she should be applauded every step.

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Understanding accepts the truth of life that can only in truth be accepted.

The hardest truths in life, when accepted, prove that we understand life. Understanding life is the key to the abundant life.

When we accept what cannot be changed, we understand, and nothing can beat us.

Understanding life is accepting the truths we must accept, for there is no point in denying them.

Understanding will prove the golden gateway to all of life. It is character put together with maturity.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.