Blog 3065 – 03.22.2024

I’m Not Who I Was

The first time I heard today’s song some years ago it appealed to me very much. I think most of us look back on our younger selves and wish that we had learned some lessons sooner and been better persons then. That ought to make us more patient with young people and help us to to see the best in others and even in ourselves.

There is a phrase in the story of the prodigal son that I recall often. Jesus says that after the young man wasted his inheritance on riotous living with false friends and found himself feeding pigs for the husks that he shared with them. In that lonely and dark circumstance“he came to himself.” I like to think it dawned on him who and whose he was. Therefore he decided, hat in hand, to return home.

It is said that you can know someone by their actions. I think we all act badly from time to time and that given time and practice most learn to improve their performance. I believe these lives are like plays in which we perform many and varied roles.

In one of my favorite Elvis songs, Are You Lonesome Tonight, he speaks several of the verses saying:

I believe that somewhere long before this particular performance began that we got to pick our part. Good guy or bad, hero or villain underneath we are who we have always been and will always be – a shining star twinkling in the night sky lighting the way home.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uIBN6KC4u0Ocj3IW1HqxvStytcMo90D4/view?usp=drivesdk

I’m Not Who I Was

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White