“It’s taken me all my life to understand that it is not necessary to understand everything.”
–René Coty
Life is so complex that much of it is beyond the understanding of the human brain. No matter how intelligent we think we are, none of us have minds capable of comprehending all, or even most, of God’s wondrous creation. And there is no need for any of us to try to understand everything. There is nothing wrong with trying to understand those things that are within our power to understand, but we all face situations in life that are beyond our comprehension.
It is a mistake to get bogged down and focus too much attention on things that are beyond our capacity to understand. We need to do everything within our power to ensure a bright future and then proceed on life’s journey with faith that everything will be all right, even during those times when it may not seem all right to us with our limited understanding. For some of us, the journey through life is like walking through dark woods with only enough light for us to see the next step ahead of us. We may want to see the whole journey ahead brightly illuminated, but it is not necessary that it be that way. If we can see clearly where to place our next step, that is all the illumination that we really need.
So many of us devote too much time to trying to see beyond the horizon instead of focusing on that stretch of the journey that is immediately ahead of us. This is a mistake. No matter how hard we try, none of us can see beyond the horizon and none of us can live tomorrow until it becomes today. We have no choice but to live one day at a time, no matter how much we would like it to be otherwise. The past is always behind us and the future always lies ahead. We can think about those other time periods if we choose to do so, but we dare not devote too much of our mental energy to them.
Some of us stumble through life as if we were walking in total darkness. We become so frustrated with our effort to see beyond the horizon that we fail to notice that there is plenty of light to see where to place our next step. And when we have taken that step there will be sufficient light to see still another step. We may not like living with so much uncertainty and we may be obsessed with the desire to see what the future has in store for us, but that is never possible. So we must accept the reality that we cannot understand everything and that we do not need to understand everything.
Think about it.
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Copyright 2026
Allen W. Smith
