Note to the 30-Year-Old Me of 1995: You're Not as Wise as You Believe!

This is a photo of me taken in 1995 when I was 30 years old. By this point in life I had obtained two Bachelor of Arts degrees, was a father of two children, and was working in the field of law. I look back on the young man that I was and recall that I believed I was pretty wise. Oh my, I was actually rather naive. I was fairly "book smart," but life has a way of showing you just how little you actually know. As the years and decades unfolded beyond that point, I learned that "wisdom" has nothing to do with age as much as it has to do with being willing to obtain, retain and apply the knowledge acquired along life's path.

I turned the birthday calendar last week and became 55 years old. During the past 37 years of adulthood I've learned a lot about life (marriage; parenting; career; faith; and the list goes on). Yes, the young man you see in this photo felt that he was fairly wise with respect to the responsibilities of adulthood, and I feel that I did indeed handle things pretty well as a 30 year old. However, I was not as "wise" about life as I thought I was.

Wisdom is commonly defined as acquired knowledge and the capacity to make due use of it. Many sources define wisdom as the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. In the Bible, the word wisdom appears hundreds of times. King Solomon asked God for wisdom (1 Kings 3:1-15), and God blessed him with it. Ecclesiastes 7:12 tells us that wisdom gives life to those who have it. In 1 Corinthians 12:8 wisdom is described as a spiritual gift. And we certainly cannot overlook Shakespeare who said, "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." Now that I'm 55 years down life's path, I can certainly say that the 30-year-old me was a fool.

Keep in mind that wisdom is unlimited, and during our lifetime we only possess a very small portion of it. To be able to say the words "I don't know" is a person's first step toward wisdom.

From Him, Through Him, For Him (Romans 11:36),

Paul J. Staso

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Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek

Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:

• United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
• Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
• Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
• Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
• The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
• Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
• Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
• Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
• Some Cycling Moments From The Past