"Momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

Messenger Boy: Are the stories true? They say your mother was an immortal godess. They say you can't be killed.

Achilles: I wouldn't be bothering with the shield then, would I?

Messenger Boy: The Thesselonian you're fighting... he's the biggest man I've ever seen. I wouldn't want to fight him. 

Achilles: That's why no-one will remember your name.

In the 2004 cinematic adaptation of Homer's great epic Troy, Achilles is a man focused on one thing and one thing only, his name. That is, that people would remember it. Nothing else matters in a world where either you prove your worth, or end up vanishing like a silent breath on a winters day. This theme of vanity is seen throughout the book of Ecclesiastes and the writer begins his lament at the apparent meaningless of life with these words:

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,

vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes, and a generation comes,

but the earth remains for ever.

The sun rises, and the sun goes down,

and hastens to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south

and goes round to the north;

round and round goes the wind,

and on its circuits the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea,

but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

there they flow again.

All things are full of weariness;

a man cannot utter it;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear filled with hearing.

What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said,

“See, this is new”?

It has been already

in the ages before us.

There is no remembrance of former things,

nor will there be any remembrance

of later things yet to be

among those who come after.

The opening word of this outpour of anguish is 'vanity'. The word in English has been translated from the Hebrew word 'hebel' (הָ֫בֶל) and is better translated as 'vapour' or 'breath'. In the eyes of the writer of Ecclesiastes, all is vanity. Everything we do, everything we see, everything we are will soon come to nothing. This is a sobering thought and yet it is a thought that when taken seriously is inescapable. Without the existence of a God our lives will inevitably come to nothing. We have come from nowhere and we are going nowhere and so in the grand scheme of things, you might ask the question 'what's the point?'. Of course many people will argue that we are to simply live our lives ignoring this overarching question of whether everything we do has a meaning. Just live and be happy. Yet does this way of thinking really sit at peace as we journey through our life? One of my favourite photographs, is of a picture of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 3.7 billion miles from Earth. It is called the 'pale blue dot' and in the picture, the earth appears as a tiny dot suspended in a ray of light engulfed by the surrounding darkness of deep space. Commenting on the photograph, astronomer Carl Sagan says:

"...The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves..."

He goes on to say "...There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world." Momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Intriguing words which in so many ways remind us of how small and you might say insignificant our lives are in the vast ocean of history. From the peasant making ends meet in an unknown village, to the prince living in the luxury of a grand royal estate, both nonetheless enduring the same end, returning to dust from whence they came. How are we then to view our lives in light of such sobering and let's face it depressing thought? Perhaps one solution is to fashion for ourselves a name that will endure into eternity. Like Achilles, we spend our whole life inventing 'who we are' and showcasing this person to the people we meet along life's highway. The better my name and the greater my success, more value can I attach to my life. All my personal achievements will help me deal with the question I ask myself as I near life's end - 'was it worth it?' - 'did I make it count?'. 

If Sagan is right, in light of our brief existence on planet earth, if there is no God then there is no objective (outside of us) meaning to our lives. If there is no objective meaning then any purpose we are to give to our lives is to come from within. I will make of my life what I make of it and one of the many ways I seek to do this is in the preservation of my name. I want to be known. For some this will come with a desire for celebrity status, to be known by millions, for others it will reveal itself with a desire to be known and accepted by close family and friends. Either way, harvesting an obsession with my name is likely to lead to feelings of fear and anxiety when I don't receive what it is I am looking for. And in the end, does it really work? What if I don't make it? What if I end up being rejected? What if things unravel and don't go as I'd hoped they would? 

There is so much we could say as we consider these questions, yet it is in the gospel where I believe the answer to our quest for meaning in life is to be found. The belief that there is a God who created everything (see Psalm 24:1-2; Isaiah 40:28; Colossians 1:16) is key to unlocking such meaning. The opening five words of Genesis makes this abundantly clear - 'In the beginning God created...'. If this is true, it changes everything. No longer are we simply residents on a lonely speck in the endless realms of space. No longer are we simply riding the wave of history in a relentless ocean of chance. The presence of a Creator, immediately calls for the presence of purpose, and if there is purpose to our world, then our lives are going somewhere. 

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13). 

 

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight and that one day we must give an account for our lives. Notice the word 'must'. It will not be optional, and is a day that is approaching with every passing second. This isn't to be seen as scaremongering, but is to be a reminder that how we live our lives in the 'here-and-now' does matter. It will matter not simply 'how' you lived your life, but 'who' you lived your life for. Did you live for your own name, or did you live for the name of the One who made you? Did you seek your value, identity and life in serving your name, or did you seek your value, identity and life in serving the name of the One who became a servant for your sake? In his letter to the Philippians (2:9-11), Paul writes: 

 

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

 

At times life can seem like a vapour, a chasing after the wind. Life can feel like a constant battle to prove that I am a somebody and that my life really does count. The good news of Jesus frees us from the entanglement that such self-motivated living brings. The good news of Jesus brings hope for all who have failed, and are stumbling around in the dark. He is the light we all so desperately need (John 8:12). Are we simply momentary masters of a fraction of a dot, or is there more beyond what we see around us? I would argue that in the gospel of Jesus Christ there is living proof that this is the case. That the pale blue dot which hangs with such fragility in the vastness of space, is known and loved by a God. A God who stepped into human history to save a people for himself. It seems fitting to end with a poem about the life of one man who changed the course of human history forever. 

 

 

One Solitary Life


He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman 
He grew up in another obscure village 
Where he worked in a carpenter shop 
Until he was thirty when public opinion turned against him

He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things

Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three 

His friends ran away 
One of them denied him 
He was turned over to his enemies 
And went through the mockery of a trial 
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves 

While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing 
The only property he had on earth 
When he was dead 
He was laid in a borrowed grave 
Through the pity of a friend 

Nineteen centuries have come and gone 
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race 
And the leader of mankind's progress 
All the armies that have ever marched 
All the navies that have ever sailed 
All the parliaments that have ever sat 
All the kings that ever reigned put together 
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth 
As powerfully as that one solitary life 

Dr James Allan Francis © 1926.