Reflectionary III

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.

One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your power.

...we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.

Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.

This morning, I came across this wonderful quote by the great 19th Century Scottish clergyman, Thomas Chalmers:

"With the magnificence of eternity before us, let time, with all its fluctuations, dwindle into its own littleness."

Our crazy generation.... I believe that in eternity all those that went before us, and that may come after us, will ridicule and cajole us, perhaps good-naturedly, about our errant, childlike, narcissistic and narrow-minded view of life and morality. It's like, with all our knowledge of biology and ecology; with all of history behind us, as a clear model of how to, and how not to run a civilization; with all of these advantages, why are we such . . . children?

We can't wait for anything. We must have what we want . . . NOW! We have not been taught to wait for anything.

We want a fancy car, NOW. We want to get married, NOW. We want a house, NOW. We want good health, NOW. We want to look more youthful, NOW. We want to have sex, NOW. We can't even wait for Advent season anymore, before we begin immersing ourselves in the theme of Christmas, (Advent is supposed to be a practical exercise in waiting.)

If only we had the eternal view.

The 3rd grader says "Why did I act like such a baby when I was younger?"

The 10th grader says "Why was I so obsessed with My Little Pony?"

The College student says "Why did I put so much into having a date for the Prom?"

The Bride and Groom say "Well actually it would have been nice to have waited."

The middle-aged couple says "Why didn't I spend more time with my kids?"

The person on his or her deathbed says "Why didn't I spend more time in prayer?"

And likewise, I believe that in eternity, it will be so clear to us:

"Actually, I could have waited until marriage to have sex. Why didn't I?"

"Hmmm . . . I should NOT have chosen abortion."

"Well . . . I really should have stopped drinking so much.

"Wow . . . so I really DIDN'T need a divorce!"

"Why did we buy that house when we could have instead helped so many homeless?"

"What an idiot I was, to obsess so much about Miley Cyrus, while in my own neighborhood are single-parent homes that can use my help!"

And so on . . .

We don't get it. It all comes back to accepting the fact that there is an eternal situation off in the distance. To the eternal being, the problems and concerns of this life are simply ridiculous. And many of us will find ourselves immortal, indeed, one day.

Don't live your life so that you look back on yourself, from the purview of immortality, and say "Why was I so stupid?"