Christian Living
Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday April 25, 2006
Pierre Gassendi, born into poverty, became one of the greatest French philosophers of the Renaissance as Western Civilization emerged from the Dark Ages. Gassendi was a great mind as great minds go and a man of accomplishment in the higher realms of academia. The Gassendi crater on the Moon is named after this man of humble origin.
I know, I know, you my dear reader, like me, could care less about a great philosopher from the age of the Renaissance. So why?
I would like to comment on Gassendi's dying words. You would think that such a man would have great advice for peasants such as you and me. His advice is profound, but not in the manner you expect.
"I was born without knowing why. I lived without knowing how. And I am dying and don't know why or how!"
As one of my Yale buddies would say, "I reckon knowing all about the moon won’t hep you figure out how to live." Amen, with a long AH of course.
A popular gospel song of a few years ago, based on a biblical truth could have helped our French genius had he paid heed to the lyrics, some of which stated with emphasis, "I was born to serve the Lord." Purpose; seems to be a 'buzz' word of late. Yet the glaring emptiness of modern life screams with neon intensity of the lack of purpose and the resulting emptiness of life, even the life lived within the hallowed halls of academia. In my lifetime I have heard men born in literal shacks somehow learn to read and go around positing, "I am more interested in 'being' than in doing." By this profound statement they implied, while staring down their noses, many of which had been flattened in bar room brawls, that they in their illuminated wisdom were above the menial tasks of the ministry such as daily devotions or, God forbid, witnessing to a known lost person.
In fact every being of any tier of life has a purpose, and it usually involves some act of mere or extreme sacrifice for the benefit of others. The food chain for instance. Therefore, if I am to be, I had better figure what I am to be doing.
In truth, a family living in the humblest of a home, without much of what the world deems essential, cable tv, air, seventeen autos, 3 new outfits per day ad infinitum, is more likely to discover true meaning in day to day living than those unfortunate souls who know well the tyranny of things, the fickleness of acclaim, or even the tentative acceptance of 'the brethren.'
The old cliché seems to be a good plan for living, "Only one life, it will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last."
Larry Lilly Copyright © 2006 Use with credit
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