Today, 1 thing more than any other stuck out to me from the study: "Man in the machine". It is referring to man in the machine that is this life and all that is within it. For example, the day begins with the rise of the sun, and ends with the sunset. The wind blows, the tides change, and all of this would happen even if we ceased to exist in this very instant. Thinking like this, something so simple and taken for granted becomes a very big deal. Honestly, it's rather tragic. I will die and the world will keep spinning. As quickly as I enter the world I am forgotten.The saddest part of me knowing this fact is that many people seem to ignore it. How ridiculous...ridiculous but true. I can look for wealth and wisdom and yet, I still have to put my pants on 1 leg at a time just like everyone else. I feel like some of our celebrities in Hollywood could stand to remember this fact. My thoughts here aren't exactly new. The book of Ecclesiastes which is what I'm currently studying talks about how wealth, power, and wisdom are only things of this world and when we cease to live on the earth they go with us.
I haven't been alive THAT long, but I've been around long enough to have experienced some big life changing moments. I can see no difference in myself at 18 and the 18 year olds running around the building I help operate. We're not all the same but they are experiencing some of the very same things I did, even if they won't acknowledge that. I laughed when my own father would give advice and I would reply with "Things are different now dad", or " well maybe it was like that in your day but it isn't now". I can say with amazing certainty that his advice was sound, and it was the same then as it is today. We can pretend that life is different and that the world has changed but in reality, people love, people hate, people are born, people age, people die, we buy things, we sell things, and in the end all of it ends up in the trash.
I have enjoyed my journey through life and while it might be easy to say, "screw it, bring on eternity", I am enjoying the good and bad of this life in this world. My experiences are shaping my soul. When it is all over, I hope I'm able to look back and be proud that I prepared myself well. Some might say this is a folly and what could I possibly have to prepare for in death, but I would look at them and call them foolish. Our circumstance is too perfect for this to be all there is. Think about it.
To help, ponder a quote by Mark Twain, "The world laments you for an hour then forgets you forever".
ben
