Reto

Jan Miense Molenaer – Allegory of Vanity

I often see this, that people spend hours, days, weeks and years with stuff that is really not important. If they would consider that they will die, they wouldn't make so much ado about nothing.

Solomon said:

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

Now if we are dying, what is the only thing that counts concerning our lives? To find out if there is some higher truth and if there might be something we need to know or follow before we die.

If we just die and it is all finished then it doesn't really matter what we did. But if life goes on in another form, it might be a deciding factor. Maybe it is so that everything we did here is reversible and even if we led a terrible life, we can turn it around.

But maybe it isn't so and we cannot turn it around anymore. Would you rather take a risk on that or try to make sure you don't end up in such a position?

What is more important, that you get your nice car or your nice house – or that you prepare for what could come after you die? Because you cannot take a single thing with you when you leave this world. Job said:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.

Say you would be playing a game and if you lose you might be killed, but you are not sure, would you just ignore this possibility and play as if you couldn't die at all?

Probably not. But then why do people play the game of life like that? Surely it is foolish to ignore possible negative consequences after life.