200 Years Ago…and From Now

What message would people, who lived 200 years ago, send to us now if they could give us some advice?

Quick: Who was President of the United States 200 years ago, in 1826?

I suspect some of you, after a little thought, could come up with the correct answer (John Quincy Adams). But I have a deep suspicion that many, probably most, probably the vast majority of Americans couldn’t come up with the correct answer if they thought about it all day long. I wonder how many Americans have never even heard of John Quincy Adams. That’s the cynical historian in me talking, though, so please forgive me.

Who is going to be President 200 years from now (if America still exists, which the Left hopes it doesn’t, of course)? Well, of course, we have no idea who the President will be. And you and I won’t care, because we won’t be around, barring some incredible life-extending discovery by modern medicine. And the people who lived 200 years ago don’t know, and don’t care, who the President is now. We die, and that’s the end of our earthly knowledge.

Those who are wise prepare for that greatest, and unavoidable, of all human events—death. They make it their priority to get their lives right with God in preparation for their own death. That does not, repeat NOT, mean they neglect current earthly matters. We have responsibilities on this earth and God tells us to take care of them. Even Jesus was a carpenter for some time in His life, and the apostle Paul made tents. We have jobs, families, friends, many responsibilities that we must take care of. And, while the events of 1826 do not have a magnanimous effect on our lives today, no historical event is an island. And things we do today will have some, though perhaps minimal, consequences 200 years from now. We must do the best we can while we are on this earth, in all phases of our existence.

But we are going to die: “it is appointed for man to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). We can delay death, for a while, through the wonders of modern medicine and the mercies of God, but we can’t avoid it. So, yes, while we should do the best we can in our current earthly responsibilities, the truly wise will “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). In other words, prioritize! In that entire context of Matthew 6, Jesus doesn’t deny there are earthly matters that concern us and need to be taken care of. He just says…prioritize! Put God’s kingdom first in your life.

For, 200 years from now, that is truly the only thing that will matter to anybody living on this earth today. The people in 1826 do not care, right now, who the President is. They’d have only one message for you and me today if they could send one: Obey the Lord! And that’s the message we would send back to people 200 years from now. It is the only thing that, ultimately, really matters.