We are not just ‘dust in the wind’

IT was the 70’s. I was still in my early professional life

and in the middle of some gripping spiritual discovery. At that time,

I was battling in the area of humility. When in your growing years you

are often regarded as very special by the family, relatives and

friends, you cannot help but get swell-headed. That was my case. What

was worse was that I managed to hide it, and so the anomaly festered

until it was unbearable.

  

            It was at this time that a song caught my attention as it

did many of my generation. The title of the song was “Dust in the

wind,” by the American band Kansas. The music and the lyrics of the

soft rock just captivated me, since it offered me some answers and

relief to the inner tension I was suffering then.

  

            “All we are is just dust in the wind…,” it plaintively

said. “All we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see…dust

in the wind,” it continued. The words simply told me not to take

myself too seriously. In my thoughts, I realized that in the end, we

are nothing regardless of our many accomplishments. I found comfort in

that thought.

  

            Then fast forward. I have gone through a lot of drama in

life, and yet I managed to stay afloat, thanks to what I considered as

the strength that flows from the virtue of humility. I felt blessed!

   

            Then I discovered something else. While it’s true that we

are indeed nothing without God, we are actually something when we are

with God. In fact, we are a great thing when we truly are with God,

for we indeed are his children, his own image and likeness.

            Of course, we have to continue being humble, since

everything that we are and all the good things that we have come from

God. There is no good thing that does not come from God. It would

indeed by crazy if we expropriate as our own something that can only

come from God.

  

            With God, even the most insignificant thing that we are,

or that we say and do, can acquire a tremendous eternal value. With

God, everything that happens to us, no matter how small and ordinary,

has the potential of bringing us to our eternal life.

   

            A passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes is very apropos to

this point. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose

under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant,

and a time to pluck what is planted..” (3,1-2)

            The same Book of Ecclesiastes says that in our life there

seems to be a monotony, a sense of meaninglessness. “What has been

will be again, what has been done will be done again,” it says. “There

is nothing new under the sun.” (1,9) But this is only apparent. We can

fall into this thinking precisely when we fail to see things with

faith, when we are not with God.

  

            In the end, the happy conclusion that we can get is that

we are not actually a mere ‘dust in the wind’ that will just be blown

away into total insignificance. If we see things with faith, if we

strive to be with God, we will realize that even the most

insignificant things we have in this life, even the worst mistakes we

can commit, do have the tremendous possibility of bringing us to God,

and of enhancing our dignity.

  

            That is why, in dealing with the drama in our life where

good and evil co-exist, we should do our best to be with God, no

matter how unworthy we feel we are with him. Let’s always go to him so

we can see things properly and hopefully react accordingly. With God,

everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)