If you could take someone from the middle ages in Europe and bring them into the modern world, or take a modern human and plop them into the middle of medieval Europe, what kinds of differences do you think would be most noticeable? Surely the speed of life would be different, the hardships different in nature, travel would be different, and communication would be radically different (no TV/internet, etc.).
Philip Yancey, in Rumors of Another World, posed this question and came up with a fascinating insight from which we can learn much: "A peasant in medieval Europe oriented life around two worlds. Although the world around him contained much hardship – poverty, disease, crime, near-constant warfare – he took solace in the images of another world portrayed in his place of worship. The scenes painted in the Sistine Chapel, or on the walls of his village church, he accepted as literal truth. He understood life on this physical planet as one small slice of eternity and sought to make the connection with the spiritual world he could not see. He believed that God has revealed how we ought to live and will one day hold us accountable.
"In contrast, the average citizen of modern Europe perceives only one world, the here and now. She assumes that rational people make society's rules based on a common good…at the moment of physical death, existence ends, and there is no God to hold us accountable.
"Which view of the world, the medieval or the modern, more closely resembles that articulated by Jesus? "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul?" – if Jesus was in fact visiting this planet from another dimension, he could not have asked a more penetrating question. Apparently, to him, a connection with the spiritual world had more value than all the material goods put together…Jesus bluntly rejected a one-world outlook on life."
What world do you think of the most? What world do you truly value? In which world do you try to live?
We may feel lucky to live in the modern world for a variety of reasons: better medicine and longer lives, being able to communicate with loved ones who live far away, less hard physical labor, etc., but I'm not sure we've got the better end of the deal. While we may be grateful that we didn't live in medieval times, I tend to think that what the modern world has lost, the sense of wonder and amazement and solid belief in another world where a God awaits to hold us accountable, is far more valuable than all the modern conveniences and medicines combined. May we weep for what we've lost. God does.
Psalm 96:10 (NLT) - Tell all the nations that the Lord is king. The world is firmly established and cannot be shaken. He will judge all peoples fairly.
PRAYER: Father, correct our thinking and beliefs and make them in harmony with Yours! In Jesus' name, Amen.
Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple, ><}}}">
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