Two of my personal heroes are Corrie ten Boom and Lynne Takahashi. Corrie, as you may know, was part of a Dutch Christian family who paid a horrific price for harboring Jews and helping them escape the Holocaust of World Ward II. Many of her family members died and/or suffered torturous conditions in concentration camps. Her beloved sister, who was also her dearest friend, died in a camp just days before Corrie and the other inmates were liberated.
Lynne is a wise and beloved friend of mine. Trust me, you wish you knew her. She's generous, loving, hard-working, kind, and serves with all her heart. I have literally never met anyone who knows her who doesn't love and respect her.
When I asked her to share with me one great life lesson she has learned and that lesson overlapped with what my other hero, Corrie, said, I knew it was something I needed to share with all of you.
So, what did they say?
Lynne - "I've learned that everything I do, everything that is thrust upon me, prepares me for everything I am going to do or that will be thrust upon me in the future. I've seen over and over that what I'm doing at any given time requires skills I learned/earned at an earlier time."
Corrie - "Today I know that such memories (of prior hardships) are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work he will give us to do."
I believe these women.
I don't know about you, but those ideas bring me a lot of peace. When I look back, I know I don't have to be stuck in the past, but that if I look for what I learned, I can see how my past is the foundation for my present and future. When I'm presently in a difficult place in life, or when I feel stuck in some way, or have trouble finding my current purpose or path, I can take a deep breath, relax, and trust that I'm learning things I'll need later.
I believe our lives are designed to teach us what we most need to know and that we are given each "class" in turn to prepare us for what's ahead. Lessons can come in the form of opportunities that open up for us. They can come from our own choices, be they wise or foolish; they may even be "thrust upon" us, as Lynne points out. However they come, we can trust them and their power to prepare us.
Whatever our lives may look like - past or present - we can feel settled in our hearts knowing we're in good hands. We may not know what's coming, but we can live with strength and confidence knowing we've been prepared for it by our current and past experiences.