NYC
When walking through a big city with skyscrapers towering above, made of concrete, steel, and glass, you may be forgiven to feel as if these buildings and surrounding edifices are permanent. But the solid nature of the buildings belies the fact that all of them are only temporary placeholders, each of them decaying in one way or another. They will eventually be replaced by something new or possibly even overcome by nature itself.
There are archeological sites the world over that were once bustling cities, with “permanent” buildings and well-maintained infrastructure that are now enveloped by jungle forests or buried below eons of more recent civilizations. Even our local Appalachian Mountains show the wear of the ages in their limited height and rounded peaks when compared with younger, more severe mountain chains like the Himalayas or Rockies. When even our surrounding mountains demonstrate transience and decay, what of other material things?
The apparent permanence of the structures that surround us encourage the misguided pursuit and possession of our own material goods as lasting markers of our lives and success. We neglect the mist-like nature of our existence (James 4:13-15) and frequently fail to immerse ourselves into investing in things of greater consequence.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748), the hymn writer and poet, penned the following lines in considering the frailty of humanity’s earthly pursuits.
The Vanity of Man as Mortal
Teach me the measure of my days,
Thou Maker of my frame.
I would survey life’s narrow space,
And learn how frail I am.
A span is all that we can boast,
An inch or two of time.
Man is but vanity and dust
In all his flower and prime.
See the vain race of mortals move
Like shadows o’er the plain.
They rage and strive, desire and love,
But all the noise is vain.
Some walk in honor’s gaudy show,
Some dig for golden ore;
They toil for heirs, they know not who,
And straight are seen no more.
What should I wish or wait for, then,
From creatures earth and dust?
They make our expectations vain,
And disappoint our trust.
Now I forbid my carnal hope,
My fond desires recall.
I give my mortal interest up,
And make my God my all.
It is solely in the giving of ourselves to others, the sharing of God’s blessings, received by us in multiple forms, that one experiences something genuinely permanent—the love of God. This is what we are put on this earth to experience and demonstrate.
Let us all pray that God will help us more consistently embrace a focus on instances where we can experience and share the never changing love of God. It is only in reorienting ourselves away from the temporary nature of our material pursuits, “…making God our all”, that our living will become transcendent.
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Dan Kreiss, RPC’s Associate Pastor for Mission Outreach, brings with him a heart for service and a diverse array of experiences in the mission field. Be sure to subscribe to the Mission Outreach Blog to read and follow along as he documents his personal journey and shares his vision for RPC’s mission outreach commitment. Along with providing meaningful resources, this blog will help jumpstart the important conversations our church community must be having about missional living.
Dan Kreiss
Rev. Dr. Dan Kreiss is the Associate Pastor for Mission Outreach at RPC. Dan is particularly passionate about encouraging the church to reflect the diversity found in its surrounding community in regard to age, gender, ethnicity, education and economic status.