In all my research of antibiotics these days, I keep running across the phrase "half-life" with some regularity. I remember that concept from high school science courses. Without getting into the details of the matter - and hoping to cover up my complete ignorance - the idea is that the medicine that I'm taking works for a certain amount of time until it loses its impact. Hopefully, before that happens completely, I've received another dose and then that new dose works until it loses its impact. And it goes on and on.
In lay terms, the concept of half-life helps us understand how long something continues to last and have influence. And, of course, sometimes influence is good and sometimes influence is less than good.
I know that my explanation is ridiculous and flawed, but it serves a good purpose for today's blog.
What I'm thinking about today has nothing to do with science or medicine or carbon dating or anything like that. Rather, what I'm thinking about today has to do with our activities as human beings: the things we say, the things we do, the things we orchestrate, the things we are part of.
And my question today is simply this: how long do our choices and actions and words carry an impact?
I'm asking the question for a reason.
I fear that most of us live as if our actions have a "statute of limitations." The idea is that, if I did something a long time ago, I no longer have to bear the consequences of what I did. If enough time passes, then I can consider myself off the hook. Now, there actually is a legal concept like that. But I'm pretty sure that the legal construct doesn't really apply in the moral and spiritual spheres. It seems to me that human behavior continues to produce consequences for a long, long time. It might even be that human activity never really stops producing results.
In other words, human actions have an almost infinite half-life.
What that means, among other things, is that we carry the responsibility for our words and actions for a very long time. Of course, God's forgiveness is free and freely offered. And in God's grace, our failures and mistakes and sins can be separated from us as far from the east is from the west. At the same time, though, God rarely removes the consequences of our choices even when forgiveness has been granted. Especially in the realm of human relationships, we deal with consequences - and others do too. It's like pulling old nails out of board; the nails are gone . . . but some scars remain. And often that's how life is for us.
Several times lately, I've heard people dismiss old behaviors and actions because those behaviors and actions were . . . well, because they were old. "Oh, that happened a long time ago," people have said. The comment is intended to render the earlier action insignificant. But even things that were done long ago can continue to do damage. Not simply because someone has chosen to nurse an old wound, but because that old wound represents something real.
We generally have a deeply flawed understanding of time and memory.
Oh, that was a long time ago. At least I didn't get caught. Surely that's been forgotten by now. I doubt that anybody even remembers that. I don't think anybody even saw what I did. It was just a passing comment. I don't really want to deal with all that; I'll just try to do better from this point forward. I never said that. But I did that last week; who even remembers last week anymore? Why, that happened years ago.
And those comments all make so much sense - except for that long-lasting half-life of human activity. It seems to go on forever. Amazingly, all the stuff that we hope has long since been forgotten might still be having an impact.
What is the statute of limitations for a human action or word?
There may not be one.
It takes real courage to deal with old stuff.
It's probably even better not to accumulate old stuff in the first place.