The men rush without cease and are always on the run. At a certain hour they must be here at another hour they must be somewhere else and so on. And in order not to forget everything they have to do, they write everything down. With such a run it`s good anyway that they remember what`s their name…They don`t even know themselves. But how to know themselves? Can you reflect yourself in a troubled water? May God forgive me, but the world became a hospital for the insane. The people don`t think at all at the afterlife, only ask for this life uncountable material goods. That is why they don`t find their peace and they are always on the run.
It`s good there is an afterlife. If the men had lived eternally this life there wouldn`t have been another hell greater than this one, because of the way they made their lives. With this restlessness from today if they had lived 800-900 years like in the time of Noah, they would have lived a terrible hell. Then they lived simply and for long years to keep the Tradition. Now it happens what the Psalm says:
`The years
of our life are seventy or
even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil
and trouble [1] Seventy years are enough for the people to arrange well their
children`s fortune.
One day passed by my hut a doctor who lives in America and he told me about the life from there. The people became like machines there. They work all day without cease. Each member of the family must have his own car. And at home for enjoying their own freedom they have to own four televisions sets. They work hard and toil to earn a lot of money to say they are arranged and happy. But what have all these to do with happiness? A life like this full of restlessness and always on the run after money doesn`t mean at all happiness, but hell. What to do with life in a stress like this? If the whole world had had to live a life like this, I wouldn’t have wanted it. If God told these people: `I don`t punish you for the life you live, but I shall leave you to live like this for ever`, this would be a terrible hell for me.
That is why many people can`t endure to live in such conditions and they go in the open air, but without direction or aim. They gather in groups and they go outside towns in the middle of nature and some do this to practice gymnastics and others do it for other reasons. I heard that some people go in the open air and run or climb the mountains till they reach the highest heights. They keep their breath then they release it and they breathe again. Things with no avail. This shows their heart is crushed by worries and they seek an escape. I said to someone who was like this:
`You dig a hole you make it large and you get amazed of the hole you dug then jump in it, falling down, while we dig a hole but there we find precious metals. Our effort and toil has a sense because it is made for a higher purpose.
[1] Ps. 89, 10-11.
Excerpt from With pain and love for the man of today– Pious Paisios the Athonite, Evanghelismos.
