The Lord said:
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. (John 9:4)
The Lord's works in his mortal ministry were to always do what the Father would do in his place. Our work is to always do what he would do in our place.
Every moment of life provides us with the opportunity to learn and live God's will by learning and living what he would do in our place.
The precise content of our work depends on the seemingly infinite variety of our specific situation. While we are all different people in variously different situations, as we face the same direction, our behavior and experiences will converge on Christ.
As we wend through life, we will face opportunities that will not come again. So many moments are so much more important than we believe. Every moment of life is precious, and none will come again once passed.
Two examples focusing on the example of physical aging
While the directionality of our decisions is true and apparent in every facet of life, I want to focus on two examples whose visual nature is more visceral and therefore easier to comprehend. We are going to look at Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emma Watson.
Arnold
Mr. Schwarzenegger has had a vivid mix of successes and failures in life. He came to America as an immigrant and achieved every one of his audacious professional goals in spite of tremendous challenges. He rapidly rose to unprecedented bodybuilding success. He overcame the many barriers to his goal to be a Hollywood star--including his massive size and terrible accent--converting both into signature trademarks. He even had a successful political career.
From afar, all of this public success seems overshadowed by his family decisions, where an obviously unhappy marriage became a hard to explain affair and an old age consisting more of laments about days gone by than celebrations of a life achieved. At 76 years old, and enjoying decades-longer physical prowess than average, Arnold hit the headlines recently complaining about how his body has finally crossed the point of no return. He had his whole life to prepare for now, to make choices that would provide value to him when he--like every other person in this world who lives long enough--became old.
“It’s one thing to see yourself get older and more and more out of shape but most of the people have never been in shape...When you’ve been hailed for years as this supreme body...and then…you roll the clock 50 years and you’re standing there and you don’t see that anymore," he said.
Imagine having accomplished so much and yet having no enduring joy. Perhaps Arnold didn't have his priorities straight.
Youth-based value won't last forever. Those who treat it as if it does will be miserable. Those who use it to secure long-lasting value will have the greatest joy.
Emma
Emma Watson's youth has come to an end. From what can be seen at a distance, it would appear that the main benefit she has received from how she spent her time is lots and lots of money. Because she strongly believes what most in her age group do, she is very unlikely to be happy. Because she is not married and has no children, she does not know the happiness that is uniquely available for a woman with a good husband and children to whom she is dedicated.
While in the peak physical condition for attracting a high quality man and having children, she made an interesting comment demonstrating inner turmoil about getting married and having children. Here are a few pictures of Emma Watson around that time: Here. Here. Here. Here is a more recent picture of Ms. Watson. So many older women lament that their poor choices came as a result of what someone else said or did. "No one told me," they say. It is interesting that Ms. Watson would characterize the signs that she would not be young forever as "subliminal messages from society." Those signals had to include her bathroom mirror.
Imagine how much regret one must feel who was considered by many to be among the most attractive in the world, only to have that time pass and have nothing but money to show for it. Perhaps Emma didn't have her priorities straight.
Youth-based value won't last forever. Those who treat it as if it does will be miserable. Those who use it to secure long-lasting value will have the greatest joy.
Reflection
The trove of opportunities that God gives us in life are not a treasure box, but a stream. They flow through time. They are not around forever, and how we react to them impacts what remains thereafter and what we have to show for the time. We ought to make decisions that maximize the value of our future situation. We ought to trade what we presently have for the best long-term outcomes.
Looks do not last forever, whether they be found on a man or woman. They ought to be enjoyed while we have them, but also diligently and wisely traded for the best future outcomes when they are no longer present.
As soon as a girl becomes a woman, her highest priority should be finding the highest quality husband who will receive her. Anything that competes with this end must be set aside, and any other activities must be subordinate to this. A woman's best chances for the highest quality man decrease over time. One reason for this is that women's looks decay faster than men's, due to lower testosterone. A woman's non-physical value is less visible than a man's non-physical value, much more correlated to her physical value (because hormonal changes affect emotions, personality, thinking, energy, and output), and much more likely to change suddenly. These factors alone sufficiently explain why a woman's ability to attract a man begins at the beginning of adulthood and quickly decreases with time. These factors alone are sufficient to suggest that it is wise for men to marry women who are still young.
As soon as a boy becomes a man, his highest priority should be becoming the highest quality man he can be. Anything that competes with this end must be set aside, and any other activities must be subordinate to this. A man's youth is the time when he ought to be working with all his time-limited strength to maximize what he has to give others during the duration of his life and beyond. He ought to trade the vitality of youth for lifelong abundance, increasing his value through smart and hard work. A man doesn't clear land and build a cabin at 50 years old, he does it when he is 17, 20, or 22.
Don't waste your youth. A man's most productive years--like a woman's most attractive years--occupy a variable span of time, but tend to peak in the early 20s. Don't allow clear deviations from the average to convince you that you will be different from the average.
When it comes to the abundance of people who take offense at such obvious facts, consider that anyone who believes absurdities or responds with violence to truth is a dangerous person, indeed.