Too late

Yesterday, after 4 hours of being in office hours, there were 4 people left.

[me]: wow, I’m like making up for the past 3 years of not working so hard
[DY]: yea, but this is good; I’m understanding things. I like understanding things.
[me]: yea, I like understanding things too. I wish I had worked harder earlier; It’s too late now.
[DY]: It’s never too late.

Today, I replayed the conversation in my head a few times, and thought about whether or not it was true. That it’s never too late.

In a narrow-minded sense, yes, sometimes it can be too late--too late to meet a particular/specific goal. But in a broader, more general sense, no, it is never too late, never too late to start, never too late to change. If you are a father of a 25-year-old son and you never bothered to build a relationship with your son, then it is too late to create those childhood memories. And some may think you may never be able to win your son’s heart back after years of bad fathering. But it’s never too late to change. To start the process. The outcome may be uncertain, but it's not always about the outcome.

So, in the specific sense, yes, it is too late to make things the same again. Too late to meet particular goals, too late to turn back time. But it is never too late to change, to start over, to be forgiven, to forgive, change.

And that is why we say: “it is never too late” in response to someone who says ‘it is too late’. Because we are encouraging them to think in a broader sense.

In essence, we are saying to them: it doesn't matter, but think about what does matter.

It is too late--
It is never too late.