I did. Sometimes.
And then I realized, people were too busy trying to farm or make a living. They didn't need social media, television, or the grocery store.
They broke their backs making their living. They didn't live long. Usually between 30-40 is the average. Would you have known your grandchildren? Grandparents? How old would you have been when you lost your parents?
Every day counted. Every day you worked was a day you got fed. You went to church on Sundays, probably.
It's easy to say, "Oh, I'm going to do such and such and such before I die."
Jesus only had thirty-three years of life on earth. By the standards of the day, it was a full life. During the Middle Ages, you had about forty years if you were a serf/peasant.
If you knew you were only going to live between thirty and forty years, because it was the average of the day, what would you do?
Someone made a comment last night that kids were getting pregnant younger and younger. I said that it's going back old school. People are getting married and having babies at thirteen, and dying at thirty.
Sometimes I wonder how bad of an idea that really is. If you were only going to have a short amount of time, you're too busy trying to live to think about dying.
I wish I had the book with me (I'm at Amanda's), but in Stephen R. Lawhead's The Spirit Well, a character asks why the Egyptians were so obsessed with death. You're familiar with the mummification process aren't you? It's a long, drawn-out process, and it works like nobody's business. It's in preparation for the life after death.
The character being asked the question answers, it wasn't about death. "They were obsessed with life."
THAT made me stop. Life. Not death. Life.
“Seize the day, whatever's in it to seize, before something comes along and seizes you.”
― Lloyd Alexander, The Arkadians
So happy New Year! Make your years count.
No comments:
Post a Comment
No profanity.