“The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Alfred Lord Tennyson
In his famous (and my favorite) poem Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson presents Odysseus (or Ulysses as the Romans called him) as an old man, a king who wistfully recollects the past. His wife, Penelope; his son Telemachus; his best friend, the late Achilles; his brothers-in-arms, all come to mind along with memories of standing on the “ringing plains of windy Troy,” savoring a hard-earned victory at the zenith of his career. But, in the autumn of his life, Ulysses is not the sort of person to rest on his laurels. Rather, he sees his waning years as an opportunity for one final adventure—a last hurray, if you will.
I had revisited this poem for an assignment on “vision” recently, and was struck by the line “‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.” Remember, it is not Ulysses who is speaking, but rather Tennyson (and a young Tennyson at that.) Tennyson’s Ulysses cannot be tamed, chained to a throne day after day, year after year, even if those shackles be gold. To him, life is an adventure, and adventures must be sought out. It reminds me a bit of Henry David Thoreau who said once “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…” So it was with Thoreau. So it is with Ulysses.
“[I did] not, when I came to die, [wish to] discover that I had not lived.”
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Ulysses (Tennyson) speaks of a “newer world” and Scripture does promise believers a glorious one in death. However, each door that God opens for us is in this life is a new world in and of itself. And it is never to late seek God’s hidden purposes. Nor are things ever so bad that God cannot cause us to rise above our circumstances, the guilt, the shame, the anger and hurt. As John says, “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts…” (I John 3:20.) Nothing that moans in the Deep or rages within can separate us from God’s love. As Paul writes in Romans 8:38, 39)::
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“
I think Tennyson’s point is that life is a precious resource that we’ve been given. It is worth much more than diamonds or gold or fame or whatever else we use to measure success or self-worth. We should thank God for every second of breath that we have, and not squander the time or opportunities that God has allotted for us. It may not be a good idea to climb K2 at the age of 70 but you can write a best-selling novel (though, Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura scaled Everest when he was 80.) You may be too old to fly an F-18 Hornet, but you can pilot your own plane. At 77, Jeanne Socrates sailed solo around the world. Never parachuted before but always wanted to? President George H W Bush jumped on his 85th birthday (and again five years later.) You may not be able to walk, but you may be capable of inspiring great athletic feats in others. You may be imprisoned, but your words of encouragement can set others free. Think of the everyday difference you can make in the lives of everyday people, people who might die realizing that they had never lived as Thoreau feared he might. People searching for a new world!
Ulysses knew that there were many worlds, and I’m here to tell you that there is one for you; a world without tragedy, fear, hopelessness, bullying, failure and ruin. A world where in death you’ll rise again to a new eternal life. Scripture is your map and prayer is the key to unlock this new beginning—and it is never too late to explore it.
Here’s where your adventure begins.
Feature photo credit 4maksym (Shutterstock.)
