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When sixteen-year-old Ethan’s bicycle stopped working, he wheeled it into Grandpa’s garage.
“Can you fix it?”
Grandpa examined the chain, gears, and back wheel.
After several minutes, he stood up.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan laughed.
“What do you mean you don’t know? You fix everything.”
“I fix lots of things.”
“So what’s wrong with it?”
Grandpa shrugged.
“Haven’t figured that out yet.”
Ethan was surprised.
Grandpa was the person everyone called when something broke. He repaired lamps, chairs, lawnmowers, leaking faucets, and nearly anything else placed in front of him.
Ethan had assumed Grandpa always knew what to do.
They spent another twenty minutes working on the bicycle.
Grandpa tried one thing.
It didn’t work.
He tried another.
Still nothing.
Finally, he wiped his hands.
“We’ll stop for today.”
“You’re giving up?”
“No.”
Grandpa smiled.
“I’m stopping because I don’t know what to do next.”
“Aren’t those the same thing?”
“Not even close.”
The following afternoon, Ethan returned.
The bicycle was working perfectly.
“You fixed it!”
“Eventually.”
“What was wrong?”
“A small piece inside the rear hub.”
“How did you figure that out?”
“I called Frank.”
“Who’s Frank?”
“A man who knows more about bicycles than I do.”
Ethan grinned.
“So someone else gave you the answer.”
“Exactly.”
Grandpa leaned against the workbench.
“Ethan, one of the most exhausting things you can do in life is convince yourself you’re supposed to have every solution.”
Ethan thought about that.
A few weeks later, he received a disappointing grade in mathematics.
Normally, he would have sat alone trying the same problems repeatedly, becoming more frustrated each time.
Instead, he remembered the bicycle.
He asked his teacher for help.
Months later, when a friend came to him with a difficult family problem, Ethan didn’t pretend to have some brilliant answer.
He simply said,
“I honestly don’t know what you should do. But I’ll sit here with you while you figure it out.”
His friend looked relieved.
“That’s actually what I needed.”
As Ethan grew older, he discovered there would be many problems much bigger than a broken bicycle.
Career decisions.
Money worries.
Relationships.
Parenting.
Loss.
Unexpected changes.
Some problems had clear answers.
Others didn’t.
Sometimes the solution came from another person.
Sometimes it came after more information.
Sometimes it appeared only after waiting.
And occasionally, there was no perfect solution at all—only the best decision he could make with what he knew at the time.
Whenever Ethan felt pressured to have everything figured out, he remembered Grandpa standing in the garage saying three simple words:
“I don’t know.”
They weren’t words of weakness.
They were honest words.
Because being capable doesn’t mean having every answer.
Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is admit that you don’t have the solution yet and remain willing to keep looking for it. 💛
