As a person of faith, I am compelled to see life through
eyes that have presuppositions of life and death which have a meaning so very different than people in
the culture around me. A colleague
recently encouraged me to feed my awareness of the brevity of life.
Those words have meant much to me this year. I am in the middle of the memoirs of a
brilliant yet tragically misguided journalist of our generation – Christopher
Hitchens (picture; died Dec 15, 2011). He
was an atheist, a humanist and a socialist. Last year I read his book God is Not Great and have watched an
intriguing video of him debating a
scholar. I enjoy how Hitchens keeps me learning – keeps me going to the
dictionary even as he’s from political positions I disagree with and from moral
and theological positions that I oppose.
Yet, he also helps keep in mind that saying – to ever keep
before me an awareness of the brevity of life. As we’ve been in the US for a brief escape
from the frontlines, as it were, I also
deeply feel the brevity of life. At 44 years of age I’ve probably lived over
half my life. There is more to this life than pop culture and materialism. What
are we going to do with the days we have left?
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