1 Corinthians 13:10-13 10when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The first year of your life you were a selfish little baby! Instead of just talking about being hungry or disparaging the state of your diaper, like a mature person would, you just screamed your head off until someone else solved all your problems. Thankfully, almost everyone grows out of this phase of life as they gain a little language and life experience.
Growing up is the experience of learning how to be more self-sufficient. When you feel hungry, you don’t start screaming, you go find food. If now-you wrote a letter to much younger-you there is a lot of wisdom you’d want to impart. Most of these would be lessons on how to avoid heartache, make better choices, and maybe sprinkle in a little bit of how to get rich.
You might even want to tell your younger self which childish things they should have put away a little sooner. If you were to make a list of 15 things you would want to tell yourself from 5-10 years ago, what would they be Further how many of them can you apply to your life in the future?
Obviously, some of the advice would be specific: don’t do this, avoid this person, etc. But a lot of it would be strong words for the person you would like to become. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is talking about loving one another and keeping an eye on the person Jesus is revealing himself to be in your life.
You don’t get to know what will happen in the future, but you can use your past to help prepare for it. It is only after you fully come out the other side of hard times that you are able to process and take something that felt like evil and turn it for good.
Paul ends this section in verse 13 saying “now faith, hope, and love abide…but the greatest of these is love.” When you make it through the hard times of life you are better able to give love, and have love, and share love. You’ve made it out of the depths of despair; you know how to turn around and help pull other people out.
You can’t know the future, so how will you use your past?