– Profound Learning Experiences –
I read a recent devotional article where the author wrote about sharing a personal story about a profound experience that taught him something about himself. I thought about this statement and tried to conger up a personal experience where I learned something about myself. Try doing it. It’s not an easy task. But after a few moments, some connected experiences came back to me that all pointed to something I learned.
All the experiences involved extremely stressful events that happened to me. One was an arrest and two where serious illnesses. In each of these experiences, I felt I had just fallen down a deep dark hole and was all alone. But in each event, I reached out and asked for help from others. In all three, I sought mental health counseling because what was going on in my head just didn’t feel right and I was scared. In one of the illness events, I sought God’s help because I was at the end of my rope. It was the first time I had prayed in years.
And here’s what I learned about myself from these experiences. I always thought of myself as a pretty self-reliant guy. I can solve most problems, fix any broken item, and overcome most obstacles.  It’s not a macho or ego thing. I’m an introvert and sometimes don’t want to bother other people with my problems.
But in these events, I couldn’t deal or resolve them on my own.  I needed help and an internal force triggered me to reach out for help.  I learned that being self-reliant doesn’t work. We need the help of God and others to deal with stuff. And now that I learned that lesson, I don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for help. Always to God because I know he’s always there for me. I also learned to be there for others who are reaching out for help.
If you’ve had a profound experience where you learned some about yourself, please share it in the comments. Your experience may help someone who reads it.
