It doesn't matter.
In a few years I will die... no prophecy here, but surely within the next 50 years, and I am being generous with my life expectancy. A thousand years from now there may be very little if any evidence that I have ever existed. A few billion years from now the sun will expand and swallow this planet. Eventually, the universe will end in heat death or a Big Crunch... In historical, geological, or cosmological contexts, what I do doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
OK, let's look at what religion says. I am a child of God and He loves me very much. Jesus sacrificed Himself for me. To return that love, I live His laws and trust in His grace. In a few years I will die. My spirit will enter its reward or penalty, but the test of this life will be over and my existence will continue in the new, eternal phase. I will be resurrected and either return to God's Presence where all my life's sorrows, pains and struggles will be gone; or I will suffer for eternity and all me joys and pleasures of life will be gone. A thousand years from now, will I be concerned about what I did today? A million years from now will I still be beating myself up over some social faux pas? Will I still be sorry I didn't make a million dollars? Will I regret not having changed the world? Will I care if my life is not chronicled in high school history books? No.
It doesn't matter.
And then if I look at my life in perspective of the nearly 7.4 billion lives on Earth just now, I am not that important.
It doesn't matter.
It is humbling to realize that what I think, say, or do doesn't matter. Again, I learn to not take myself so seriously. It's OK to laugh at myself. It's OK to try and fail, to make mistakes. It's OK to be wrong sometimes. And, it's OK to let things go even if I think I am right. Knowing that in the long run...
It doesn't matter.
I have only here and now. Here and now, in this tiny, human context of my life, everything I do matters very much, to me and to those around me. I must love here and now. I must live here and now. I must be here and now. I have no guarantees, no promises, no contracts, no rights to anything beyond this moment or beyond my own reach. I am grateful for what I have, for my life here and now. Everything else...
It doesn't matter.
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