The Next Six Years
I might as well go ahead and admit it; I like C-Span. Well; I like some parts of C-Span.
I’m not “into” the daily committee meetings, live sessions of the House of Representatives and Senate, etc. What I do like is some of their weekend programming. I don’t get to watch a lot of it, but I enjoy some of that programming when I get a chance to watch or listen.
I especially find interviews with authors about their books to be of some interest. Recently, while doing something else and listening to one of those interviews, I heard a comment that captured my attention.
The man being interviewed was an historian. I’d seen and heard him before. He has written a number of books about various historical characters and events.
The comment he made that I thought was interesting had nothing to do with one of his books, though. It had to do with him, his life, and his career.
He was talking about a new position he was taking, the responsibilities of that position, the move he would be making, etc. In the course of talking about all of that, he said (and this may not be an exact quote, but it is pretty close)
The next six years of my life are pretty well mapped out.
Really?!
Earlier in the interview, he had talked about a time when he had almost died due to a heart attack. He told of a friend who got him to a hospital in time for his life to be saved. It seems to me that, with that experience in his background, he might be wise to not be so sure about the future.
Interestingly enough, just one day after I heard that interview, our local news was filled with stories about the murders of members of a family who had returned home after a Sunday morning worship service. I do not know what their plans were for the next six years, or for the rest of that day for that matter. I think it can be safely assumed that their plans did not include leaving this earthly existence when they did.
A huge part of being an historian is doing hours and hours of research. I might suggest to the man I heard interviews–and to all of us–to dust off a book we might use all too sparingly and read these words:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16; ESV)
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Photo background credit: Joe Lanman on Creative Commons
