Be Sure, Another Downhill Is Coming

​You graduate tomorrow. If I could give you one gift it would be to assure you that after you graduate high school, life is a downhill journey.

Smooth sailing.

Easy it goes.

But I'm afraid that promise would pretty quickly turn into a lie. At least that has been my experience.

So instead of assurance I'll offer some advice - or maybe we'll just call it encouragement; enjoy those trips down the steps. And even more, as much as you can, find ways to enjoy the steps when they start feeling more like a climb.

For the real joy in life is coming to know the greatest joy comes AFTER a climb. ​

We have climbed mountains to see the joy of sunrise.

We have climbed roller coasters to feel the joy of the hands-raised downhill races into nowhere.

We have run 5Ks to feel the joy of the finish line.

You see, the trick to life is to not get scared off when the steps start going up. Don't be intimidated. DO NOT let life become a bully. Don't allow yourself to believe that life is suddenly out of order when life starts to feel uphill.

Because that IS the order.

Uphill-Downhill.

Struggle-Growth.

Ashes-Beauty.

I've come to believe that is about the only predictable thing in life. It is life's only real version of order.

Uphill-Downhill.

My hope - oh, my very deepest prayer - is that your life won't encounter many of the uphills mine has.

I hope your uphill resume doesn't come to include battles with substances, battles with your mental health, battles with countless broken relationships.

But it if does, I hope you will at least take a glance at me and see a man still climbing. A man always throwing punches back when life starts punching. And every once in awhile - still - a man raising his hands on the downhill races to nowhere, joy and laughter pouring from his downhill soul.

You don't always get a say in your uphills - when they show up and what they look and feel like when they arrive - but you always get to choose what you say to the uphill when it shows up, or even when you mistakenly choose the uphill path.

So, say to your uphills, "if you're here to defeat me, well, that's not going to happen. But if you're here to grow me, well then, let's go."

Let's go, because I know a downhill is coming.