Cemeteries and Castles

I just returned from two weeks in Scotland, and while there were many things I enjoyed, I was also reminded of the human lust for power and the reality of death.

We flew into Glasgow and took a train to Edinburgh. Despite the fact that I've been in Edinburgh 46 times to play basketball when I was in graduate school, I had never seen the castle. As we walk through the castle, and as we read about the battles and the sieges and the fighting, I was struck again with the evilness of the human heart. I know that wars are complicated with a myriad of motivating factors, but it just seemed that the English wanted control of Scotland and Scotland wanted to retain their independence. Battle after battle, siege after siege, victory after defeat, they fought.

Jeremiah was certainly right when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (17:9). Why can't we just get along? Why can't we share our resources? Why can't we do our best to enable the other person to achieve? I know it's common to say that people are basically good, but Jeremiah would not agree. And history would not agree. It's why salvation has to come from outside and not from within.

As we drove through the Highlands, we stopped at a little shop to get some coffee and noticed a country road leading off toward the ocean. We took a risk and drove down and came to a cemetery on a cliff overlooking the water. Maybe I am a little strange, but I think it is important for everyone to periodically visit a graveyard, to be reminded of our end on earth, and to evaluate our lives and ask whether we are living in light of our certain end and what comes after. As someone said, he had never seen a hearse with a trailer. You certainly cannot take things with you when you go, and go we all must.

I hope this does not sound too morbid, but for me all this has been a positive reminder of the nature of reality and the joy of salvation. This world is full of so much pain and evil, and what seems good can quickly turn bad. I do not know how people can live without the hope of Jesus, knowing they are living in a relationship with him, and will continue to do so for all eternity. I am thankful for his covenantal love for me. And I am glad that I am a small spoke in the giant wheel of his kingdom, trying to be the aroma of life to those that I meet.

As my brother-in-law often says, why am I surprised when things get bad? They are supposed to. And as a pastor recently preached, why are we surprised when lost people act like they are lost? Let's live life in view of its natural end, dying exhausted in working for his kingdom, and at death falling into his arms and hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant! ... Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matt 25:23).