LJI20 Week 1: Open Topic

I can't tell you when the words that haunt me were spoken, because I wasn't in the room to hear them.

I can only tell you where I was when they were spoken to me.

I can also tell you that I was sixteen, and you will soon understand why that detail is what I remember.

*****

Dad and I were driving back after dropping Stacey at her place. It must have been a Thursday, because that was the day we worked on the school newspaper. (Keep in mind, though, that we had a high school of 75 students, and three of us juniors had somehow conjured up a journalism elective out of thin air, so the word "newspaper" is doing some heavy lifting there.)

We were climbing the hill in the beat-up Ford LTD in which I would eventually learn to drive, talking about the things fathers and teenage sons talk about when the relationship is right. Which, at the time, it was.

And then Dad mentioned something to me that had been said a couple of weeks prior, and I remember and resent those words to this day.

Before I tell you what was said, you should know about the man who said it.

*****

Pastor Donald Sheley was a warm, loving man of God. In an alternate universe somewhere, he could've been a leather-helmet linebacker in the early days of the NFL. Instead, he founded Church of the Highlands in 1959 and grew it into a community of the kind of Christians we all want every Christian to be.

Though his voice thundered from the pulpit every Sunday for nearly fifty years, preaching the need for everyone to come back to the cross, he never let the doctrine of the church slip into the prosperity-gospel nonsense that has infected a large segment of American Evangelicalism today. He eventually passed the running of the church to his three sons, and when I tell you they all take after their father, I mean it as a compliment.

I haven't been back to Highlands since Pastor Don's death in 2016, but from what I understand they have survived the pandemic and come out the other side as a place Jesus would be proud of.

But for the first part of my life--certainly up until I was sixteen--the former shopping mall atop a windy, fog-bound hill was my second home, the village that raised me. And when Pastor Don spoke, you listened.

And when he said something that sounded like a prophecy, you did your darnedest to fulfill it.

*****

So when your father tells sixteen-year-old you that he was talking with Pastor Don recently, and about what the future might hold...

...and when the words you hear next--Pastor Don's words--are "Mark my words; in fifteen years, the world will know who that boy is."...

...and you look back on those words twenty-seven years later, nowhere close to having fulfilled the prophecy of one of the few Christians you still respect in this world...

...and you realize you are, in some ways, okay with it, because fame isn't something you would wish on anyone...

...but you also feel the weight of untapped potential and unmet expectations crushing your psyche...

...it's fair to wonder whether it's possible for any prophecy--even a benevolent one--to ever be a blessing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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adoptedwriter

Hugs….Success is all relative.

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Thanks for reading! <3

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halfshellvenus

but you also feel the weight of untapped potential and unmet expectations crushing your psyche
I've sure had those feelings before. Not that I haven't accomplished or had success, but it certainly never matched whatever my parents hoped it might be. Or me, even, back when I was young and the possibilities seemed endless.

I loved the line about the "journalism credit" doing a lot of heavy lifting. Hey, those kids made their own opportunity!

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I forget whose idea it was or how we argued it to the principal, but hey, one extra thing to throw on the college applications!

And yes, there's definitely a sense where I'm comparing myself against alternate-universe versions of me, and not liking the results. But I'm trying to break myself of that.

Thanks for reading! <3

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pixiebelle

Oof. I felt this.

“but you also feel the weight of untapped potential and unmet expectations crushing your psyche...”

That is something that I’ve lived with my entire life. You captured it well. I’m really happy to see you back, I always enjoy your work.

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Glad to be back. Thanks for reading! <3

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gardeningatnight

We place a lot of expectations on ourselves (and the people around us do, too) in regard to what success looks like. And that doesn't seem fair.

But, I would also say that sometimes prophecies are fulfilled, but not in the ways we expect. And I'm sure that as long as you've been a good person and tried to care about others, Pastor Don would still be proud of you -- those things might not make us famous, but they are probably some of the most important things we can accomplish.

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True enough. And also, there's still time (though probably less of it that we'd hope for).

Thanks for reading! <3

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simplyn2deep

Oof. This really made me think about how something meant entirely as encouragement can turn into a weight a person carries for decades. Pastor Don clearly saw something in sixteen-year-old you and meant those words as an expression of confidence in your potential. But when someone you respect that deeply says the world is going to know who you are, I can absolutely understand how “someone believes in me” could slowly become “I’m supposed to become someone extraordinary.”

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I think a lot of people, myself included, tend to overestimate how infrequently potential turns into reality. There's a lot of ways things can go astray, and surprisingly few paths to "the top" (whatever that means).

Thanks for reading! <3

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bsgsix

Oh, wow. Yes. So very much - this is all relatable. Those good words or thoughts that turn into expectations, and if we feel like we don't meet them or measure up... there's so much pressure. Blessings become curses indeed.

I think it comes down to how you view YOUR life, and the paths YOU'VE chosen, but that's always easier said than done.

You're a good person, and a talented writer, and if those two things are part of you, then the world DOES know you by deeds and written words. You are important.

This was reflective and so very relatable. <3

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I think part of the feelings stem from a refusal (baked into me by years of playing Scrabble and poker, both of which blend luck and skill in a very strange set of ways) to blame my failures on mere variance. As in, if there's something I could have done better--in any arena of life--that's the thing I need to improve for next time, and I need to figure out what it is.

Which makes it a tough place, psychologically, when (a) there's genuinely nothing you could have done better; and/or (b) there may not be a "next time".

Thanks for reading! <3

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penpusher

This is so great... but, the question has to be: what elements did the "prophesiser" do to help that prediction? Because no one turns into who they are all by themselves. The are molded, shaped, supported, torn down, by all the elements of the world and the people they encounter. And with the support missing from the equation, it just doesn't add up.

Then again, religous men have been wrong, very wrong and even criminally wrong.... so it's not like they have a lock on the future! And yes, I relate to this in more ways than I care to admit, or at least more than I care to state at the moment!

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He did the things he believed were best. For the most part, I agree with him.

Could he have pushed my father, and by extension me, in a slightly different direction when it came to finding a college for me to attend? Sure. But I'm not sure how much of a difference it would have made.

Thanks for reading! <3

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poppetawoppet

Untapped potential and unmet expectations: ooof I feel that hard

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Thanks for reading! <3

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ofearthandstars

I think the expectations and hopes of our parents weigh heavily, whether they hold the power of prophecy or not, especially at that age. I hope that Pastor Don still communicated pride and love for you for who you were long after that, and if not, I hope you can come to peace with the idea that we are not meant to be the molds and projects of our parents, we are own people, but we always carry pieces of them with us, and we can look at what they said as hopes for us to have an easier life than they did. Did he truly wish you fame, or did he wish you a life of ease and minimal financial strain and being surrounded by people who love you and/or people who recognize your gifts for what they are?

♥

Edited Date: 2026-09-23 10:33 pm (UTC)

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I think he saw great potential (which I definitely had) and thought it would easily translate to reality. Real life, as I've come to discover, is not so simple.

Thanks for reading! <3

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kandigurl

Ah, yes, the gifted child curse. I struggle with it, too. I was supposed to be “The next Elton John.” Unfortunately I hated to practice piano.

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Yeah, that would be a bit of an impediment. I'm not sure who I was supposed to be the "next" of, and maybe my own inability to define that for myself (I still don't have a satisfactory answer to "what do I WANT to do with my life?") was a contributing factor here. But there's still time, at least in theory.

Thanks for reading! <3

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kandigurl

I definitely don’t know what I want to do with my life either!

My mom was impressed I could play by ear. Which of course meant I had to learn how to read sheet music and practice scales. And if I was just playing around instead of doing my assigned homework, I wasn’t “practicing.” Hard to believe I stopped feeling any motivation to play piano. 🤷‍♀️

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purplepetrichor

Ugh. I empathize with that feeling.

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Thanks for reading! <3

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murielle

These kinds of pronouncements can be as much curse as blessing.

But, the most important. consideration is, are you content, are you good with who you are, how you live?

I hope so. I hope you are the goodness in you.

Very well told!

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With who I am? Sure. With *where* I am? Different story.

Thanks for reading! <3

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lapis_lazuli615

There was a reason prophets are shunned and Cassandra was never believed (aside from Apollo's twist on his gift).

I hope you can see that the world is as big or as small as you need it to be, to make that prophecy feel real.

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I hope you can see that the world is as big or as small as you need it to be, to make that prophecy feel real.

...okay, I'll be reflecting on that for a while.

Thanks for reading! <3

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oxymoron67

I feel this one.

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Thanks for reading! <3

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muchtooarrogant

As parents, we certainly do place a lot of often unfair expectations on our kids. It's frequently a challenge though because you want to be encouraging, to promote high aspirations, while not applying unfair pressure. The challenge is that young people often change who they want to be several times before concentrating on a specific goal, and it's, um, very often disorienting. :)

Very thought-provoking piece, thank you.

Dan

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Part of the problem, for me at least, is that I never figured out an answer to begin with. Like, the question of "what do you want to be when you grow up" has yet to be settled. And in a world that isn't structured for jacks-of-all-trades, that's an issue.

Thanks for reading! <3

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banana_galaxy

I liked the way you built up the story to the words, explaining the surrounding events first, and then the person who spoke them, before finally revealing what was said. I had been expecting something a bit more traumatic/hurtful, but I have also felt the pain of unrealised expectations.