[Tension & Renewal - XI]
When I click on the “search” bar in Instagram, the app offers 1000 account suggestions… before I type anything. The algorithm overlords know I’m a young-ish professional male: almost every suggested account offers advice on how to succeed at business, relationships, and investing.
I must admit: some of the advice is good. Really good.
But there’s something the social overlords don’t know yet (and I hope they don’t read this and learn it from me): Winning and success and achievement teach us *nothing* of spiritual merit after about 35 years old!
I mean that literally.
Success is a great teacher for the young, when youthful freedom needs the balance of discipline, apathy needs motivation, and insecurity and fear need confidence.
But everything I’ve learned after 35, I’ve learned from failure, brokenness, and struggle. After the rush of summiting a few mountains, one learns all the lush growth happens down low in the valley.
