There Are Moments on Which Our Whole Future Hangs

There are moments in our life story,
which shape everything that happens to us thereafter.

Sometimes those moments are so tiny, so fragile…
We don’t see them until we look back.
Months, perhaps years, later.

I’ll tell you about such a moment.

An episode that changed the life of a young Administrator in a Financial Planning support team.

He was your typical bright, chirpy fellow who lived for Friday nights with the lads… football and his girlfriend. And why not, eh?

His job was a pretty good paycheque to the weekend.
But it was just that. A job with a paycheque.

Until that day.

Until that day during his 6 months backpacking trip with his mates.
Until that day in South America.

Until that day when they dared each other to bribe someone.
Until that day when their bribe allowed them to enter the depths of a mine.

And there they saw it.
There in the dark, damp, airless black belly of that mine.

Men. Three generations of them.
Men sweating and straining and toiling and hurting and hungry.
Men worn out and dying in their early forties from the pain and physical destruction of it.

The minutes in that hellhole seemed like hours to these daring young lads from Gentle England.

Until they could no longer endure the horror of the choking fumes and crushing sights.

“Let Me OUT. Let Me OUT. Let Me OUT!”
Was about all that he could remember his mind screaming.

Back in Gentle England he reviewed his life.
His comfortable, privileged, rhythmic, luxurious life.

And he vowed that the forty hours devoted to his paycheque each week…
Had to mean far more than that!

And now?
Today?
A few years later?

Now he’s Director of Financial Planning…
in a firm voted “One of The Best Financial Advisers to Work For”.

Now, he’s far brighter and more capable and more emotionally skilled than he recognises.
And you’d warm to him easily.

I’ve heard it said…
those who work in his team “would walk through fire for him!”

His name?
His name is Alfie.

There Are Moments.
There are moments on which our whole future hangs.
There are moments which shape us.

I wonder…
Do you recognise yours?