December, as always, has been a month of reflection. The end of the year does that to us. More so if, like me, you write out your personal goals for the year and look back at how you’ve done on the previous year. I won’t divulge how I did – they are after all - personal.
Reflecting back on the past year is something the newspapers are very fond of doing this week (between Christmas and New Year’s). I don’t want to take your time in doing likewise however – I’ll leave that to you. Instead I propose to take a moment of your time (thank you for reading, by the way) to contemplate the question we all ask ourselves at the end of the year. I’ll do that by briefly talking about two people who don’t get the opportunity to try again in 2012;
Christopher Hitchens died just a couple weeks ago. He’s very well known for his proudly atheistic viewpoints and his admittedly sharp and poignant writing. There was much fanfare about him dying in the National Post (for which he contributed a regular article). Reflecting back on his life, I would imagine he felt he lived just about as well as anyone could – anyone who didn’t acknowledge God that is. I’ll quote his obituary; “He also professed to have no regrets for a lifetime of heavy smoking and drinking. ‘Writing is what’s important to me, and anything that helos me do that – or enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument and conversation – is worth it to me,’ he told Charlie Rose in an television interview in 2010, adding it was ‘impossible for me to imagine having my life without going to those parties, without having those late nights, without that second bottle.’ Although Christopher might be satisfied with how he lived his life, I wonder what he ultimately accomplished in his life and death. He had wealth and influence to accomplish much. For sure his book (God is not great) would’ve been instrumental in keeping numbers of people out of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, at least for some years. And his articles were very engaging. One thing is certain – he made decisions to do (and write) what he thought was right of and by himself. Is that the some total of a life well-lived?
In the very same section of the paper that very day (Dec 17), there was a most insightful article describing the demise of one very poor street vendor in the relatively unknown country of Tunisia exactly a year previous. Mohamed Bouazizi changed the world with his life. After his entire means of livelihood was taken from him by a corrupt government official and his appeals went ignored, he poured paint thinner over himself and lit a match. His death by self-immolation sparked (no pun intended) the Arab Spring. Because of his life and death the governments of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have been changed. The iron-fisted rulers of Syria, Bahrain and Yemen are in serious trouble. Six countries changed forever because of his life and death, though he had no wealth and arguably zero influence. Mohamed Bouazizi did what he felt he had to, not what he wanted to. But now 40 000 people are dead (current count) and twice that injured. Millions may have had their lives changed, but will the new regimes be any less brutal than the old ones? One thing is for sure – the philosophy of life of both the old and the new rulers is the same (Islam).
In the end, you might look back at a life of wealth and influence or a life of poverty and obscurity. Yet the decisions you make do in fact have an impact. Christopher Hitchens impacted a lot of people during his lifetime. Was any of it lasting? Mohamed Bouazizi impacted no one during his life but millions and millions on his death. Will any of it be for good?
Hebrews 9:27 says, “… man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” Reflecting back on the year past is only useful if we purpose to make decisions in the new year different than the ones we made in the past. Looking back then, the questions to measure our choices by are, “Are we doing what we alone feel is right?” and, “Are we doing only what we think we have do?”
In 2012, may you purpose to do as the Scriptures exhort us to – to do only what God says is right and to do so much more than we can do of ourselves - what He alone can do through us. Then, whether we live or die, we will be able to reflect back and know that our impact has been for good and for eternity.
Happy New Year!
http://www.nationalpost.com/Christopher+Hitchens/5875776/story.html
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/12/17/peter-goodspeed-mohamed-bouazizi-son-of-the-whole-world/
