A Lesson Learned In Life

It’s difficult in our modern times to listen to the nightly news without getting totally disgusted. There are so many negative reports of all the crime, corruption and destruction of our great nation, it can really weigh you down.

I received an email from an old friend last week telling me that her father passed away at the age of 78. A rush of memories had filled my head. I loved her father. He was a very giving person. He used to drive us around to church activities, singing songs and telling stories and we all had such a great time together. We were teenagers during the 70’s too. No generation gap there. I googled his name to find the obituary because he had accomplished so much when I knew him, I wanted to see what else he had done after I went off to college and their family moved away.

It was amazing to see. He already had a PhD in nuclear chemistry and helped Bell Labs in New Jersey get a satellite up in orbit. After moving away, he then became the head of the department of physics at the State University of New York in Albany. He did Research in X-ray optics and then eventually did research on the effects of metal in the human brain helping to find how to cure Alzheimer’s disease. Besides all the work he accomplished in his career, he was very active in his church and spent a lot of time with his family making his life very full right up until the end.

Another friend of mine wrote this week about a speech she heard Sunday night at a church fireside of a woman who spent time in a concentration camp as a child in Indonesia during WWII. Her name is Kitty De Ruyer Bon and she wrote all about her experiences in a book called As I Have Loved You. The amazing thing about this woman is that in the face of the most humiliating of circumstances and inhumane physical treatment, she kept faith, courage, strength and dignity. With no hope of any earthly reward or return for the good she gave, she still gave even to her captors.

The lives of these two people have touched my life and gave me such a great example to never give up when life seems so overwhelming. At times life does get overwhelming and discouraging and the temptation to throw it all away is sometimes very great. Even to give up on mankind, but that would accomplish nothing. The wisdom to give to others is much better than always thinking: What’s in it for me?

As time moves on and we are blasted with tribulations or hear what our government is doing to our country, we shouldn’t give up on what we believe to be right in our hearts. We should move forward and think clearly. It is a good lesson learned in life.