Sitting on the couch wondering when the dinner would cook itself Carolon and I finally decided to let a local restaurant do the honors. As we went through the outside doors into the lobby a lady who obviously had trouble with her feet, from the fact she was walking slowly and wearing house shoes out to dinner, passed in front of us to catch up with the rest of the family. Actually we stepped back to let her pass and as she did she jokingly remarked they left me behind. What she said in jest may reveal a bit of truth. If not for her at that moment it certainly does for many of us. I know Left Behind has been the rage for many in pop-eschatological theology in recent years. (Now there is a word worth coining, "pop-eschatology.") The point is not sudden departure out of the world, but the feeling of lagging behind people in this world.
Do you ever feel left behind? Ask a recent college graduate how it feels to be in no serious relationship and asked to join one wedding party after another of college roommates. Ask a draftsman who has spent a lifetime using tried and true techniques and suddenly finds them self competing for jobs with younger draftsmen who know the latest software. Ask a competitive heart who in their mid-twenties following a knee injury is no longer able to play competitive ball. Where is the fun in being left behind? And yet where is the advantage in letting it depress us?
I am competitive. I don't like to lose at basketball, or scrabble. My DNA says winning may not be everything, but it certainly has advantages over losing. That being said, when we do find our self pulling up the rear with little we can do to change it, why let it stress us out. The truth is the lady lagging behind was probably the one paying the bill so there is no way the rest of the family is going to move too far ahead.
1 comment:
I can visulize what you the example that you refer to.
There is the county couple gone into town and the wife is walking several steps behind the husband rushing to keep up (no respect for womankind such as in Islam). The
worker in acubicle dilligentlly doing her job, but passed over for promotion several times, perhaps due to lack of self-promotion. (after a while, he stops trying and accepts himself as unwhorthy). The senior lady left behind and sometime ignored, her companions intent on their own affairs (a oomplete show of disrespect an selfishness). Obviously, this is something that Christians should be very sensitive to, if we are not already. Everyone has a certain amount of self-dignity and our goal is to help build that up, not tear it down. One of worst things we can do is to stand by and watch a human being stripped
of their dignity.
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