Life One, Phase One
The Hebrew Bible tells us that the matriarch Sarah “lived one hundred years, and twenty years, and seven years; these are the years of Sarah’s life” (Genesis 23:1). The ancient rabbis taught that “these are the years of Sarah’s life” can also be read as “these are the two lives of Sarah.” Sarah represents each of us. We each live two lives. Life One consists of two phases: one long and one short. Life Two is shorter still.
Life One, Phase One is a life of material consumption. This is similar to the Hindu life stages brahmacharya (student) and grihastha (householder). Our goal is to master the knowledge and skills we need in order to accumulate the stuff we desire: job, spouse, children, houses, cars, clothes, and the latest iPhone. Eventually we achieve our goals, and yet we find ourselves dissatisfied. The question “Is this all there is?” haunts us. Some of us respond to this question by accumulating more stuff. But many of us realize that no car is going to bring us deep satisfaction (well, no car we can afford anyway), and so we move on to Life One, Phase Two.
It’s not that God doesn’t want to give you things, it’s that the things God wants to give you you can’t use, like grass for your cattle (Deuteronomy 11:15) when your dwelling isn’t zoned for cows. RR