What Size is Your Grave?
It’s rather amazing to ponder the things that become really important to us. Just sit around with a bunch of adults sometime and start a conversation about some high and lofty topic. Nine times out of ten, it will dwindle to some lesser subject (frequently, far lesser). On occasion, the speed with which the conversation devolves is almost startling.
We can begin talking about something like Jesus’ relationship with the Pharisees or the meaning of prayer. The next thing we know, we’re jawboning about yesterday’s basketball game. It’s not that yesterday’s ballgame is unimportant…well, it kind of is.
What I’m trying to say is, in the grand scheme of things, we dwell on a lot of stuff that should be consigned to happenstance, hobbies, and interests. Those things are part of our lives, certainly. Yet they shouldn’t hold the foremost significance in our thinking. Some things take such prominence in our lives that they relegate really important things to the background.
“I’m no different than anyone else”
If you broach the subject of baseball, I’m right there with you (no matter what else we were talking about). It’s almost scary how quickly I can switch gears to head into the finer points of the rules of the game. Pretty important, huh?
For you, it might not be baseball. It may be some other sport. Or it could be politics, architecture, status, fitness, style, finances, government, education, diet, or pets. The list goes on and on. These things are all part of our lives. We need to address them to be sure. To be consumed by them, however, is unhealthy.
I suppose we do this for any number of reasons. Sometimes it’s because we just don’t want to talk about any weighty subjects. We just want small talk. We don’t want the pressure of being responsible for spiritual matters.
Many times, I’m sure it’s because we’re selfish and protective of what we have. We’re somebody because we have nice clothes. We’re important because of our position on the job. We matter because of who we know in life or what neighborhood we live in. Therefore, we prefer speaking about those things.
I recently ran across a quote that said, “No matter how big your house is, how recent your car is, how big your bank account is, our graves will be the same size. Stay humble.” Death is the great equalizer, is it not?
“How long are you going to live?”
Each of us will live for a while—fifty, seventy-five, or maybe one hundred years. Then, no matter how many toys we’ve collected along the way, we end up assuming room temperature.
The best way I know to stay humble—to maintain a reasonable perspective on life and love—is to pursue the loftier things. The latest smash hit TV series might be a good distraction. We all need a good diversion or two. Let’s just not make our diversions our main things in life. They’re not going to increase the size of our graves.
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