A deeper legacy than hard work
The psalms of ascent press hard against the norms of our bootstrap culture.
Century illustration (Source images: Unsplash)
I heard a story recently that broke my heart. A pastor was speaking about his practice of meeting with families when their loved ones die. He makes a point, he said, of asking them about legacy. “What will you remember most vividly about your loved one? What have they left behind that you might carry forward?”
At least 80 percent of the time, he said, the families tell him that their loved ones worked hard. They worked extremely hard their entire lives—and that’s all the families can say, no matter how much the pastor probes.
He concluded: “We 21st-century Americans have created a culture of work so burdensome, people’s entire lives—their entire lifetimes—are dominated by its demands. There is no space left to breathe. To rest. To love and be loved. To flourish as human beings.”
