Throughout my childhood, I would ask people to explain certain things to me, and they would respond with, “One day, you will understand.”

I hated this response. I am smart. I can learn quickly. Tell me, and I will know something new. In my childish mind, I vowed I would never say that to anyone.

What I didn’t understand is that some topics require not only mental intelligence but also emotional experience. I needed to feel certain things and some of them more than once. My heart needed to be broken by loss. My heart needed to expand as I loved my wife and children. I needed to experience victory and defeat both professionally and privately. Only when I had walked through all the things this life throws at me would I be able to grasp the topic and thoroughly understand it?

Knowledge is so much more than learning some facts from a book or doing a Google search. It contains a depth of information and emotion.

The other day, someone asked me to explain a passage of scripture. I paused for a moment and said, “You will not understand that until you are a Church leader.” They looked at me puzzled as if to say, I am smart, and I can learn this.

I smiled and remembered those childhood conversations. I looked at them again and said, “I know you don’t believe me now, but one day you will understand.”