Timeline

I am reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's journals again. Reading this literary giant's daily musings never fails to inspire me. While starting the book this time I noticed the publisher included a helpful chronology of Emerson's life. Timelines are popular again today, in part due to Facebook's new effort to develop (force?) timelines on all its users' lives.

I noted with interest that Emerson's timeline in the book is limited to 25 items, probably mostly because that's how many items would fit on one page. It's pretty amazing that the life of such an accomplished person can be summed up in twenty-five chronological dates beginning with his birth on May 25, 1803 and ending with his death on April 27, 1882. Even more curious is what the author chose to include in that chronology. Besides Emerson's birth and death the timeline mentions certain years Emerson attended various schools, his marriages, and the deaths of his first wife and his son. Several event markers are used to note the year certain of his literary works were published. Others mention pastorates, house fires and trips to Europe.

My curiosity piqued, I got some paper and numbered a page from one to twenty-five. The first date, the date of my birth, was easy. The last date, the date of my death, I left blank. That left me twenty-three numbers. A few of the dates that make up my timeline were fairly easy. Following Emerson's timeline I included my school years, the date of my marriage and the birth dates of my children. I also included the date of my ordination as a minister, the date of my first mission trip to Africa, and a few vocational turning points. What else I should or should not include was less easy to discern.

In the end, two observations emerged during my little experiment of creating a personal chronological timeline. First, I realized how my priorities reflect the dates I chose to include - or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the dates I chose to include hopefully reflect my priorities. The dates I chose were formative ones for me and I am richer for having been through each and every one. My second observation was that after including everything I felt was important enough to mention, including the hopefully distant yet unknown date of my demise - I still have 14 important life events to fill in!  That tells me that there is major work for me to do in this second half of my life and that gives me hope and motivation to keep running the race.

I enjoyed doing this, and I highly recommend it to you. Try it and see what your twenty-five item personal timeline looks like. Hopefully like me your focus will be sharpened and your energy will be renewed for whatever God has in store for you in your tomorrows.