Nothing ever happens the same way twice

By Jeff Becraft

 

One of the great principles in life I learned from Aslan in one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies. Aslan is by far my favorite character as he represents someone in reality in our world and always says something incredibly wise.

It was a situation where Lucy said to him, “Why didn’t you come in and do such and such like you did last time?”  Aslan replied, “Nothing ever happens the same way twice.”

This is an extremely valuable principle for all of us. Too many times we allow expectations from a previous experience to muddle our perspective of a current situation.

I remember years ago, driving all the way out to a camp in Arkansas to speak to a group… where the previous year had been an incredible experience.  In that previous year, it was the first time for us at this camp called SOTO.  It is out in boogha cheetah in Arkansas. Our entire family went so the Fab Five was all together.

It was just another world. There were no paved roads. There’s no cell phone service. There are these incredible bluffs.  There is no swimming pool. You swim in the creek.  The horses just roamed freely along with a buffalo. It was just an incredible experience. There were 36 people who stayed in the biggest lodge that was part of the campus of over 400 acres.

The following year, the two people that had gotten us out there and we had been friends with were not going to be there.  Over the years, we had done a lot of retreats and camps with them. Also this time, the whole Fab Five was not going; it was me and our two daughters. So even though that was exciting, it wasn’t the way it was the year before. And then, right before the camp, a guy named Chad who had become very special to us and was really funny and fun to be around and work with, had gotten sick and so he couldn’t come. And… at this point, our daughters were younger, so there was no rotating of drivers. I had to do all the driving by myself.

I remember pulling into the gravel “driveway” in front of the cottage. We were not in the same cottage as the previous year.  This time, there was only 13 people that were going to be there.  As soon as we pulled into the “driveway,” the two girls jumped out of the car and they went excitedly running into the cottage because they wanted to see everybody.  I was still sitting there in the front seat after the 900 mile trip.

I remember verbally saying to God out loud, “Lord, this is just too far to drive for 13 people,” and I remember kind of slowly getting out of the car.

I was getting ready to be taught a lesson.

To make a long story long, that week was a phenomenal week with the 13 people. There was this guy named Jonavan who was one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met in my life. As part of this camp, we always do a work project throughout the week. For part of the work project, some of us were on firewood duty, but the rest of the group was renovating an older cottage that was on site.  While renovating, they found this dead rat. They named him Wilbur Baggins. Throughout the entire week, Jonavan and these guys would come up with all these stories about what Wilbur was like and the things he did in his life.

It was also the first time I had ever done a high ropes course in my life.  I was scared to death…and it had a profound impact on me (but that is worth a Friday email all by itself).

The lesson I learned was that nothing ever happens the same way twice. And every year when I was with Youth Corps, when we would prepare the alumni going into Leadership Weekend, this was the number one principle we would start off with—that nothing ever happens the same way twice. Every year, it’s a different group of people. We might go through the same process, but it’s going to be different… whether it’s going to be different conditions, different circumstances, different personalities, etc.

So it is a very freeing thing to realize to embrace each day for what it is and make the most of that. If we keep comparing it to something else, we’re just going to be discouraged and we’re going to be deflated and we’re going to be disappointed.

My encouragement to us today is to embrace each day. Make the most of it. Nothing ever happens the same way twice.

It’s a great day to have a great day!

 

Jeff Becraft is the Interim Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Youth Corps is a life-changing leadership development experience that inspires high school students to be leaders in the Midlands and beyond. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].