Writing For Posterity

As I sit and read the Bible this morning in my personal time listening and talking to God I am wondering how many of the Bible writers knew they were writing for such future readers such as myself.

I imagine they may have known that some of their contemporaries and maybe even the next generation or two might become aware of their compositions. But to know that thousands of years later people like you and I would read their work surely was beyond their comprehension. (Yes, I know that God knew.)

That is one of the many fascinating attributes of literature to me, that writing something down makes your thoughts live longer than you. That is why we should write our thoughts more. Who knows who may read them and be helped in the future.

No, I am not expecting my writing to be well known. I am just expecting it to live longer on this earth than I do. As I journey through mid-life that gives me some comfort when I think about the goals I had as a younger man that I will not achieve in life. Some of those goals were unrealistic. Some were wrong-headed.

I have not given up on setting goals. My goals now are wiser, more realistic, more others-focused. One of those goals is to write things that may be a benefit to others after I'm gone.