We’re traveling this week for a retreat in Colorado. Tonight, we had Matt Manzari speak. He shared his incredible story about, as he put it, pain and suffering. ‘Pain is inevitable,’ he reminded us, then added, ‘suffering is a choice.’
After recovering from his first near-death experience wakeboarding, he was volunteering at a church trimming bushes when he was electrocuted with the same amount of current as six electric chairs. After months of agonizing recovery, he survived.
During his talk, he spoke about finding his why. Afterward, someone in our group asked him to elaborate on how he approached doing that. His answer: be like a toddler.
I’ve thought about that approach myself as Sefton asks question after question about something as simple as the American flag. ‘Why does it have stars?’ I answer him. ‘Why are there states?’ Tougher answer, but still doable without having to make something up. ‘Why was there a war?’ Again, tough but answerable. At some point, that kid gets to a question that’s hard for me to answer.
The same is true asking ourselves a tough question like, ‘What’s my why?’
Like Matt offered, the way to get to the answer is to be like a toddler.
