HEATHER HOPES: Do We Need All the Answers?

By HEATHER CATHLEEN COX
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com

Heather Cathleen Cox

If we listen to society, no matter how successful someone becomes, a person can do no right.

From the restaurants we visit to the way we dress, absolutely everything we do is subject to someone’s scrutiny. But those who scrutinize us from their soapboxes of self-admonition are rarely available once push has turned to shove and our backs are up against the proverbial wall of hopelessness.

With all of the advice-givers and would-be do-gooders abounding, where are actual favors when we need a friend? Where is the exemption when we need a break?

There are so many questions for which we cannot (dare I say, should not) ascertain answers. We drive ourselves crazy trying to know it all. Eventually, in a search to find the knowledge we lack, we come across someone, somewhere claiming to have said answers.

Americans famously spend our dollars, hours and patience enlisting the aid of alleged professionals to help answer our questions, even though these individuals may not have personally conquered the demons for which they are advising us.

It’s not that I’m opposed to asking for help and seeking guidance from the wise people who cross our paths. I believe the Bible, which clearly explains plans fail for lack of counsel (Proverbs 15:22). But in between our regrets and nostalgia, in between worrying about how we will pay bills or afford a vacation, in between shuffling to the next important meeting or wedding (or let’s face it, funeral), in between trying to understand who we are and how to get back to what we used to be, and despite the hustle of questioning how we can wake up tomorrow as a better version of ourselves, our minds become bogged down with complex scenarios that drain the last ounce of unblemished joy from our lives.

The wisest person who ever lived—King Solomon of Biblical times—stated nothing matters except the work we do and that we enjoy said work (Ecclesiastes 2:24). See, we were placed on this earth by God to be workers. Whether or not we like or would’ve otherwise selected our work, we’re told to do everything we do unto the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). By this reasoning, even if we die, we die unto God. Simply put, this means there is a way to glorify God in our death, or ultimate darkness.

There’s a certain omnipresent light which can always be found—even in a dark circumstance—so long as we uncover the truth contained within the circumstance. This light, if we so allow, will guide us wherever we need to go. And if it can guide us in darkness, it can assuredly guide us in light.

Too many people follow the ticking clock of societal constraint which leads them to believe they must become an existential version of someone they may never find, a person with more of life’s unanswered questions than life lived. Today, I pose a new thought. Perhaps, if we learn to follow the light to a life well-lived, we would realize we don’t even need to know all the answers. We could finally give up on trying to solve issues that may not even need to be solved.

There’s something sultry and unrefined about being true to your essence, in remaining true to the thing inside of you that has been there since you were little and the world was full of all things possible. Perhaps intangible, it’s the thing that makes you weird, and that sets you apart from the crowd; it’s the thing that nostalgia rekindles. It’s the thing that evokes the essence of youth misspent—the times you once wished away but now wish you could reclaim—it’s tarnished photographs and filled journal pages, and it all amounts to antiquated memories that never stop spinning ‘round the old-timey film wheel of your mind’s eye, projecting onto the silver screen of wistfulness for the past or future. It’s the thing we can only find once we’re willing to look inward.