The Biggest Picture
One of the most well-known historic scholars, Pythagoras, was one of the first people to hint towards the possibility of infinity. The Greek word apeiron had “connotations of being unbounded, indefinite, undefined, and formless” (Rucker). Eudoxus of Cnidus and Archimedes actually developed a technique, later known as the method of exhaustion, to create a way around the thought of infinity, and the symbol of infinity was not developed until 1665 by John Wallis. It wasn’t until 1873 the German mathematician Georg Cantor resolved some of infinity’s questions, but even in the 20th Century there were still new theories and ideas created that tried to explain the concept. Even today, it’s still something we have trouble completely understanding (Rucker).
The concept of infinity can baffle even the greatest of thinkers. Even the idea is incomprehensible, incoherent, to the human mind. Its literal definition is something that cannot be defined. Take a moment to let that sink in.
With that said, I can now relate this to something we’re all very familiar with: Life. After stepping away from a life of sin and permanently accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are guaranteed to be able to spend eternity — infinity — with Him. Therefore, our lives, with this logic, are infinitely small, since the timeline is forever extending forward.
We do not have that much time to work and to fulfill our goals in life. Right now, I want you to imagine your number one goal in your life. It could be graduating high school, maybe attending a university, getting a job you’ve worked towards your entire life, or retiring. Even in our infinitely short lives, it seems to us that there’s a lot of time to do a lot of things.
Personally, I’ve always wanted a plan and goal for everything I do. Whether that be what classes I take next semester, or what type of career I may pursue, I’ve always wanted a roadmap. Recently though, I’ve had a realization that has made me think. Let’s read the following scripture, then I’ll explain.
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36–40 NIV
In our lives, Jesus sets forth what the greatest commandment is, which encompasses the entirety of the teachings of Jesus into one statement: Love the Lord your God with everything in you. The second, which is similar, is to love your neighbor as yourself.
Why does Jesus say that the second commandment is like the first? The answer is simple. Through our love and trust for the Lord, our hearts are morphed in a way that allows us to love our neighbors as ourselves. God wants us to share His love with our neighbors. It must also be mentioned that you must love yourself (you must love yourself as God has made you) to love others, as it says in verse 39. We must love God, our neighbors, and ourselves, all three, to be able to create the relationship we want and need with God.
We can see that, in fact, Jesus is the living example of this precisely. He shows us how to love our Lord with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. He shows us how to love our neighbors as ourselves. He shows us how to love ourselves just as God created us. The entirety of the Law is based on this, as stated in verse 40.
Our goal every single day is to become more and more like Jesus, which means we must be willing to do the things Jesus did and does and will, and love the way Jesus loved and loves and will love. We must love unconditionally.
This brings us back to my most important realization. In our infinitely small lives, we have the opportunity to affect someone for infinity. Let me say that again. In our infinitely small lives, we have the opportunity to affect someone for infinity. Our number one goal, regardless of anything else in our lives, should be to love as Jesus loves and to be as Jesus is — which in turn brings others to Jesus. There are many ways to go about doing this, but whatever we do, we must give our all to God, our neighbors, and ourselves.
My realization is that our lives’ priority should be based on this: The only thing that can make an actual and infinitely lasting positive impact on the world and others is to bring others to Jesus. That is the truth.
Works Cited
Rucker, Rudy. “infinity”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Dec. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/science/infinity-mathematics. Accessed 13 January 2022.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
