The picture on the right is of me and my grandson, Grayden, this past Saturday at the Indians baseball game. When I was about his age, my brother and I attempted to relocate a heavy cement block. We dropped it along the way and it fell on my big toe, ripping my toenail off. Here are 4 lessons I learned about life at a very early age.
Lesson #1: Life includes pain. Sometimes a lot of it! When that block hit my toe, PAIN hit my brain. You think a hammer on a thumb is painful? Imagine a 5-ton cement block slamming into a big toe! (It might have weighed less than that. After all, these are the recollections of a 7-year-old boy.) I immediately began screaming and crying and running. I ran 3 times around the house before my mom could catch me to find out what had happened. Life is wonderful and amazing. However, pain is part of the package.
Lesson #2: Communicating well might avoid pain. To this day my brother, Todd, and I disagree about who let go of that block first. Here’s my version. He dropped it first. Even as a youngster I never blamed him for dropping the block. After all, it weighed 5 tons. (See disclaimer in #1 above.) It just would have been nice if he’d let me know he was going to drop the block. “Brother... I’m about to drop my end of this 5-ton cement block. You might wish to remove your big toe from directly underneath said 5-ton cement block.” Is this to much to ask?
Lesson #3: Consider Plan B. Perhaps carrying a 5-ton cement block was not the brightest plan I’ve ever come up with. Perhaps moving the block to the side of the house would not have given us the height we needed to step up to the roof anyway. Perhaps there was another plan that would have worked better. My first idea is not always my best idea. Think things through a little better.
Lesson #4: Painful experiences can still bring joy. While at the emergency room having my toenail removed, another excursion in pain (see #1 above), my dad showed up from work. He did not come empty handed. He brought me a new book: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. And he brought my brother the book, Tom Sawyer. While we were in the hospital, Dad wrote a paragraph in the front of both books. I’ve read that book a dozen times since always remembering that special moment when Dad came bearing gifts.
What painful experience are you going through today? The 5-ton cement block falling on my big toe was not the only painful experience of my life. It was just the first I clearly remember. Each pain-filled moment brings back these four lessons to my mind, especially the lesson about joy. “Where is the gift in this pain I’m experiencing today?” Ask this question the next time a 5-ton cement block falls on your life and see if there might be some joy waiting for you!
