Ask the Ancestors

I realize that the title could be taken a few different ways, but trust me, I'm not gonna get all weird on you here.  I'm not going to encourage you to, like, talk to the dead or anything.  lol
I woke up at 5am this morning to feed my incredible 3 month old baby (cute, squishy baby cheeks make 5am much more bearable), and I couldn't get back to sleep.  So what do I do when I can't get back to sleep?  I have a few different relaxation methods, but the first thing I do is read.  My Bible was right beside my bed and I've been reading about Job, so I continued where I left off the day before.  The book of Job is a very interesting read, I must say.  There is so much more to this book, but one little nugget of wisdom stuck out to me in chapter 8..

Just ask the previous generation.
    Pay attention to the experience of our ancestors.
⁹ For we were born but yesterday and know nothing.
    Our days on earth are as fleeting as a shadow.
¹⁰ But those who came before us will teach you.
    They will teach you the wisdom of old.


As you live your life, do you ever wonder how people lived before us?  To me, it seems like the age we live in is so "surface".  It's like we are bombarded with things that mask real life on earth.  Don't get me wrong, technology can be a wonderful thing, and I am happy to be living at this point in history.  But sometimes we get so caught up in the present way of doing things, that we forget there were generations before us who survived without the modern "conveniences" we have today.  They did things the way they were taught by their grandparents before them.  They were taught by real people, through real relationships, not a system of facts generated by a computer's search engine.  

Nowadays if we have a question, we generally don't go and ask an elderly person with more life experience than us, we google it.  I'm not saying there's anything necessarily wrong with searching something on the internet; it's been very helpful to me at times.  It just makes me wonder what our kids will have to draw from if we are setting up a culture of "fakebook" relationships, along with a plethora of confusing information confronting us at all times.  Sure, our kids will be open-minded, but will they lose their foundation?  Will they ever understand what it means to be a human?  Will they experience the deep satisfaction of real-life, in-person relationships?  Will they ever know what it means to "trust your instincts" or "listen to your heart"?  Will they ever know how deeply complex, creative and capable they were created to be?  And what will we have to leave them with?  A bunch of computer data that cannot be opened?  Hmmmmm...  These are the things I wonder.  

Do you ever ask yourself the question, "How did they do that 400 years ago, or 1500 years ago"?  Do you trust that you have been created to function properly when the foundational things (God, relationships, creation, nature, etc) are in their correct balance?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this!