I Need Someone To Understand

I Needed Someone To Understand

When I smiled and walked
Through life in my own way
Saying I was fine my eyes
Spoke out I need someone to
understand.

When some boldly claimed
experiences of wood and steel
my answer was meant to say
I need someone to understand.
When their words so distorted
Who I was my heart would cry
Out I need someone to understand.

As like a candle the flame was
Almost out the time had come
It’s last night laying disfigured on the
Table and waiting.

Then I turned standing behind me
Was someone who was like me, No,
Not like me now but then.
His walk was like my own but His
Smile spoke of an understanding.

When He spoke of his experiences of
Wood and steel I could see it beaten into
His body.

When he spoke his words painted pictures
Before me of two people I had never seen He
Said one was me and the other I understood.
When I asked Him who cared for him and who
Had given him this life he said Jesus Christ
The other person in that picture then I understood.

By Francis M. Early 1991

The Story of I Need Someone To Understand

I was sitting in my small apartment in Colorado Springs watching the first snow fall of 1991 and listening to James Taylor on the CD player. As I sat at the small table in the livingroom, I was reflecting back on just how amazing the past 10 years had been in my life and how far I had come in my spiritual journey. I didn’t think I would make it one week let alone 10 years at that time. I had come along way and was living out my dream of being a missionary to a group of teenagers who were like me in so many ways.

As I sat looking out at the snow I reflected back on how my life was at the time and how as a teenager I had struggled to find someone who really understood me and didn’t have some other motive behind what they were trying to sell me as to how to find meaning in life. Few people cared to look beyond the physical and see that there was a heart deeply needing to be understood and cared for or that I could actual care and love in return.

Many try to identify with you in there caring for you but sometimes it is those who have live with it and those who taken a few more steps that have the greatest chance of reaching someone and showing them the way out and so it was for me. It is hard to believe that the piece was written 28 years ago but I often look at it and it serves as a reminder of just how far I have come and a reminder that when I meet someone my goal is to always look deeper and try to understand where they come from.

Thoughts? E-mail: francisearly@francisearly.com