Fading away

Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. – James 1.9-11

I will turn 60 in 2015. Sixty. That’s a chunk of years. Life was so different in 1955. Most homes didn’t have television yet. Computers were monster machines that could only do the most basic computations. A lot of homes didn’t have telephones. It was a different world. In some ways it was a long time ago. 

But at the same time it was only yesterday. The years have flown by. I see former students on Facebook who are celebrating 20 and 25 years of marriage. I see them becoming grandparents. Even young people I worked with when we first moved to Ireland are in their forties. Next month we we celebrate 20 years in Ireland. 

Where do the years go? Well, they wither like the grass. They fade like old flowers. Life passes by. 

And that is why we don’t depend too much or worry too much about the stuff we have or don’t have. All that stuff fades away. Everything I see around me is going to be gone one day. It is going to blow away like dust. 

So if we don’t have much we can glory in the fact that even if we had the stuff it is not going to last. If we have a lot we need to be careful that we don’t focus on it because it is all going to pass away. 

And it all happens so quickly. Tomorrow marks the end of yet another year. The old saying is true, the older we get the faster the years ago by. Our lives are passing quickly. No matter what age we are we need to consider what we are doing. Building up a stockpile of stuff may give comfort here – but it is all going to fade away. What are we doing for eternity; for what really counts? 

We may not have a lot to glory in in this short life – so let’s glory in the marvellous truth that we are going to one day be exalted. And every day that passes brings us one day closer.