Just Dust

I originally wrote this in 2020 and posted it as an article on LinkedIn.

For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.

Psalm 103:14

This morning, my heart is filled with regret as I look back at certain moments in my life. Certain moments that I cringe thinking about...

I remember the time when I was in middle school, and I was boasting to my friends about how my great, great, great grandpa was a duke. I thought I was so awesome. My feelings were crushed when someone told me, "nobody cares about that", but they were right.

I remember visiting a nursery with another guy from our team and noticing tiny things that I thought they could do better at, but missing all the amazing things they were doing right, and being humbled when the other guy said, "Chris, this is a great nursery".

I remember thinking I had all the answers to the world's problems, and I know I still think that at times, and then I hear the soft words of my wife saying, "but God is sovereign."

I remember my dad saying after I had ranted to him about something I could do better, "yeah, because you are young and proud and you want to be the best at everything". Wooh, that took some wind out of me.

So many moments, so much more than what I've written above. All based in pride.

And now, as I learn more, I realize; I know less than I thought I knew before. As I learn more about a topic, I understand even more how little I actually know about it and I am confronted with the reality that I am just dust.

In our lives, it is so easy to base our identity in things we accomplish here and now, our body image, or how much money we have. Yet none of those things last.

The past couple weeks, I have been reading a book about the Ford Motor Company, and how deep of a crisis it and other automakers were in before the 2008 financial crisis. No matter how great of a company Henry Ford had established, it didn't matter in the long run. The team on the ground had to keep the fire on and fix its issues 100 years later.

Another thing I've found out lately is that after 100 years in a casket, the only thing that is left of a person is the teeth. Everything else has completely returned to dust. No matter how beautiful, how fit, how healthy the person had been, none of their body image remains. It is dust.

In my life, as I consider my past and present mistakes of putting my trust in my abilities, looks and power, I am humbled. That is what is good about these moments.

I want to think more of what my person of this world will be one day, dust, so that I can put more attention to the person that truly matters. My soul.

Jesus said, "what can it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?" The answer is nothing.

If we compare the years we may live in this life, to the time-frame of eternity, our life is like a drop in the sea, or a grain of sand on the seashore. It is nothing. No matter how much we accomplish here, the ocean of time will wash away the memory of it.

Jesus said, "what can it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?" The answer is nothing.

I am contemplating this today because I feel regret, but I don't want to stay there. I want to act in humility in all my personal interactions and business propositions. I want to remember I'm dust, but my soul is eternal, and place more confidence in the God that gives me all things.

I would also like to invite you to join me.