Tomorrow I board a plane back to my home and I am so looking forward to it. I will sleep in my own bed, see my father, sisters and other family whom I miss terribly, visit with friends I haven't seen in way too long, and this weekend will celebrate the greatest event in history at my home church.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy traveling, whether it's for work or fun (or both). There's something amazing about getting to see other parts of the world and spend time with people very different from me. But there really is no place like home. So as I sit in a Dublin hotel room one sleep away from that trip home, I can't help but look back over the last 10 days or so as well as all my previous trips to this continent. And when I do think back, it brings to mind my favorite Indigo Girls song. History of Us.
Over the last 9 years, I have been blessed to see most of the places that inspired this song, and some not mentioned but dripping with the spirit of it. It is sobering to see structures over 1,000 years old as well as paintings and sculptures created before our country was even imagined. The Sistine Chapel and the Coliseum in Rome. Michelangelo's David in Florence. The Mona Lisa in Paris. All reminders of one inescapable truth: Life is short, history is long, and our time on earth will be nothing but history. Here is what Indigo Girls sang about it. Listen if you will, and follow along with the lyrics below.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy traveling, whether it's for work or fun (or both). There's something amazing about getting to see other parts of the world and spend time with people very different from me. But there really is no place like home. So as I sit in a Dublin hotel room one sleep away from that trip home, I can't help but look back over the last 10 days or so as well as all my previous trips to this continent. And when I do think back, it brings to mind my favorite Indigo Girls song. History of Us.
Over the last 9 years, I have been blessed to see most of the places that inspired this song, and some not mentioned but dripping with the spirit of it. It is sobering to see structures over 1,000 years old as well as paintings and sculptures created before our country was even imagined. The Sistine Chapel and the Coliseum in Rome. Michelangelo's David in Florence. The Mona Lisa in Paris. All reminders of one inescapable truth: Life is short, history is long, and our time on earth will be nothing but history. Here is what Indigo Girls sang about it. Listen if you will, and follow along with the lyrics below.
Lyrics:
I went all the way to Paris to forget your face
Captured in stained glass, young lives long since passed
Statues of lovers every place
I went all across the continent to relieve this restless love
I walked through the ruins, icons of glory
Smashed by the bombs from above
So we must love while these moments are still called today
Take part in the pain of this passion play
Stretching our youth as we must, until we are ashes to dust
Until time makes history of us
Jeu de Paume's full of faces knowing peace, knowing strife
Leisure and toil, still it's canvas and oil
There's just no medium for life
In the midst of the rubble I felt a sense of rebirth
In a dusty cathedral the living God called
And I prayed for my life here on earth
So we must love while these moments are still called today
Take part in the pain of this passion play
Stretching our youth as we must, until we are ashes to dust
Until time makes history of us
There are mountains in Switzerland, brilliant cold as they stand
From my hotel room, watching the half-moon
Bleeding its light like a lamb
And the town is illumined, its tiny figures are fast asleep
And it dawns on me the time is upon me
To return to the flock I must keep
So we must love while these moments are still called today
Take part in the pain of this passion play
Stretching our youth as we must, until we are ashes to dust
Until time makes history of us
Captured in stained glass, young lives long since passed
Statues of lovers every place
I went all across the continent to relieve this restless love
I walked through the ruins, icons of glory
Smashed by the bombs from above
So we must love while these moments are still called today
Take part in the pain of this passion play
Stretching our youth as we must, until we are ashes to dust
Until time makes history of us
Jeu de Paume's full of faces knowing peace, knowing strife
Leisure and toil, still it's canvas and oil
There's just no medium for life
In the midst of the rubble I felt a sense of rebirth
In a dusty cathedral the living God called
And I prayed for my life here on earth
So we must love while these moments are still called today
Take part in the pain of this passion play
Stretching our youth as we must, until we are ashes to dust
Until time makes history of us
There are mountains in Switzerland, brilliant cold as they stand
From my hotel room, watching the half-moon
Bleeding its light like a lamb
And the town is illumined, its tiny figures are fast asleep
And it dawns on me the time is upon me
To return to the flock I must keep
So we must love while these moments are still called today
Take part in the pain of this passion play
Stretching our youth as we must, until we are ashes to dust
Until time makes history of us
Yes, much in the song points to the apparent futility of life. In them we see that under the sun, everything seems to be meaningless.
- Paris's museums are full of images of lovers who are long gone, and even the images have been smashed by the bombs of two world wars. Romantic love doesn't bring lasting happiness.
- The paintings are just canvas and oil and cannot possibly capture what people of history have really gone through. Their problems and joys were just as real to them as ours are to us. And they're over.
- Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We will all (if we are lucky) grow old, trying to stay young as long as we can, until we are nothing but a memory ("time makes history of us").
But there is hope. And it is scattered throughout the lyrics, especially in the admonition of the chorus. But the seed of it is in verse 2. In the midst of all the despair, there really is a living God who inspired the cathedrals and can give meaning to our lives here on earth. And he calls us to do two things with all our heart: love him and love others.
You see, there are only two things that will last way after time has made history of us: the Creator and the people he has created. So how should we spend our lives? Investing in money? Power? Things? Pleasure? Land?
Jesus spoke often about this. He told the parable of the rich man who built bigger and bigger barns to store all his wealth, but then one day life was over and it did him no good. And he said it directly too:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)
How do we invest in eternity? Well, Indigo Girls hit the nail on the head. We really must love while these moments are still called today - it's the one thing that lasts. Love our family, our friends, the oppressed, the forgotten, and yes, our enemies. Take part in the pain of this passion play - make no mistake, love and pain go together because when we love we share the pain of those we are loving...and they share ours.
When time makes history of us, what will be left? I pray for our lives here on earth. That for you and me it will be a legacy of love... and an eternity of the same.
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