the age of exploration
The Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration was a period from the early 15th century that continued into the early 17th century, during which European ships traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners.
from wikipedia.org
People, we are living in the future. We have an app for everything. I can order a pizza from my watch with one single tap and eat it roughly a half hour later. I can get in a plane and arrive on the other side of the world a few hours later. I can order anything in the world and get it in a day or two at my house.
You can look at all of this from a few different perspectives. Imagine being alive in either 1620, 2020 or 2420. People from 1620 would be blown away by how far people will go in 400 years and people from 2420 would be blown away by how far they have gone in 400 years. Obviously, we can look most accurately from the perspective of 2020 since we are all living now. We are not living 400 years ago or 400 years from now. We are living now. So what does it mean to live now? Living now is not the easiest thing to do. Because living now requires us to learn from the past and be future focused while still living now.
Contrary to popular belief time never really stands still. We are a people constantly moving forward on a linear plane. There are times when we get off track. Sometimes we constantly have our sights set on the newness of tomorrow and forget about today and yesterday. Or there are times when we constantly have our sights set on the greatness of yesterday and forget about today and tomorrow. This is such a common trend among christians. There has to be a balance.
We should look to what the psalmist says in chapter 46. He calls us to do one simple yet complex thing. Be still. It is so easy to get caught up in the future or live in the past. In order to live how we are biblically called to live we must take a moment to be still. We are to learn from the past and live now by setting our sites on the future. We cannot get too caught up in yesterday, today or tomorrow. We have to find a balance.
So I prepose that we begin looking at life from a new perspective. Let’s look to 1620 and learn from it. In 1620 the Mayflower set sail. We are living in 2020 where currently almost the whole world is shut down due to a pandemic. We don’t know where we will be in 2420. We have to learn from the past, live now and plan for the future.
The age of exploration officially ended four centuries ago. We named this time period this because looked back on it and recognized the exploratory spirit of the people. So, because of the explorers yesterday; let’s be explorers today for the explorers of tomorrow. Let’s be explorers.
happy exploring,
zackary
