Only a Paragraph

How do you see your place in history? Do you have high dreams about your name in history books 1000 years from now? Maybe you are a bit more humble, and you only want to be alive in a significant point in history. The temptation that many experience towards fame of one sort or another is quite widespread today. People are so self-centered in the modern age that many are willing to go to prison just to get their name on everyone's lips.

What if the opposite were true? What if the entire 20th and 21st centuries were summarized by a single paragraph in a history book written in A.D. 3000? Something would be written that would merely state that it was a time of self-absorbed people who took society off the rails. Then it would be followed by an extended section describing the amazing Saints who gave their lives to change the course of events and bring about a renewal of the faith that rivals anything we know about.

It would be humbling to find out that all these things we consider so important will be forgotten by most people in the future. Think of it this way: how much do you know about the 9th century? Can you quickly name one person who lived then? Most cannot. What matters is not how much people remember us; what matters is whether our Lord remembers us and whether He is honored by what we do.