About Schmidt

We showed the movie "About Schmidt" at the home fellowship last night. It is about a 66 year old man (acted by Jack Nicholson, brilliantly as usual) retiring after a lifetime of working as an insurance actuary in the same company and facing the meaninglessness of his very existence. The excellent script brought to the screen the reality of aging, death, broken relationships, and amidst it all, the humour and pathos of ordinary lives of ordinary people very much like ourselves, the viewers.

Everyone of the dozen of us were quiet and sober at the end of the show. One young man in his 20's kept saying, "It's so sad, it's so sad." Well, it is sad, as Moses put it in Psalm 90:

"For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."

What more if life is lived without God? In the words of the Preacher who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes,

"Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun; But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity. ... Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity. ...
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Ecclesiastes 11:7-8; 12:8,13-14