We do not know
How our lives will play out
The plots in our life stories
Are not authored by us.

And yet, something must be said
For all that we’ve lived through
Sometimes with our innocence abused
Sometimes with passive aggression
Sometimes with a sense of shame or guilt
Sometimes with cowardice
Sometimes with heroism
Sometimes with anger and rage
And sometimes with silent courage and humility.

Our common experience though
Has been our vulnerability.
Our acquired knowledge may have shielded us
But we only became fortified
By living through the emotions
We were taught to avoid or overcome.

Failure to meet expectations
Is not only necessary in order to survive
It also becomes the friction you need
In order to grow into wisdom.

Each one of us must
Bear within us the burden of our cross…
Of our frail humanity
So that we may come to know eventually
That we know nothing
And it is not our knowledge that will redeem us
But our faith.