Our culture loves to hear stories of brief brushes with the rich and famous. We seek our five minutes of fame as if those precious moments were the climax of a life well-lived. We glory in glorious moments. We live for the next promotion, the next phase of life, the next upgrade.

Into this scene, the description of the life of Enoch sounds as uncommon and un-glorious as a comma. Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:24). Precious little the writer of Genesis captured about his 365 year life in the genealogy between Adam and the great flood. Precious little, but precious, indeed.

My favorite commentator, MacLaren, summarizes these brief verses intended to capture a long life well.

” ‘He walked with God.’ That is all. There is no need to tell what he did or tried to do, how he sorrowed or joyed, what were his circumstances. These may all fade from men’s knowledge as they have somewhat faded from his memory up yonder. It is enough that he walked with God.”

Oh, how I wish my heart were constantly content to merely walk with God. Rather, I find raging within me obnoxious ambitions to do some great thing, to know some great thing, to leave a mark. These selfish flames have only grown with the added fuels of our cultural idols to stand out, to compete, to be successful according to the world’s measuring rod.

Over and against my ego-filled self and our ego-fueled culture, the life of Enoch stands out in its purity and simplicity of purpose. It seems it was enough for Enoch to walk simply with His God.

Paul commends such a simple, quiet life with God to the Thessalonians.

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification…But we urge you, brothers,.. to aspire to life quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3 & 10-12. 

This week, as I have been pondering  the profound simplicity and beauty of Enoch’s life, I have found myself praying that it would be enough for me to be like Enoch.

Enough to be like Enoch

Nearly four hundred years of life
Collapsed into a four-word phrase.
We know little about him except
He walked with God all his days.

He neither needed notoriety,
Nor panted after human praise.
Were it enough to be like Enoch,
Fully content under God’s gaze. 

His life was not marked by goods,
He did not chase accolades.
Were it enough to be like Enoch,
In fellowship that never fades.

To be content in His company,
To be satisfied with His smile.
Were it enough  to be like Enoch,
Walking with God mile by mile.

Whatever the span of days
Between my first and last,
May they be summed up simply:
She to her Christ held fast.