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One Hundred People

by Ed Harrell

In a recent book, historian Leo Braudy estimated that the average person in medieval society saw only about one hundred other people in the duration of his or her lifetime. That statement astonished me. When I ran it past two of my historian friends who teach courses on the middle ages, they gave me another tidbit. The average person during those centuries never journeyed more than ten miles from home.

These pieces of historical trivia pretty well destroy romantic notions of chivalry and courtly elegance. Throughout most of human history, life has been grim, provincial and short.

Think of the problems of living in such a society. How did you find someone to marry? Of the one hundred people encountered by the average person, half were probably kinsmen. Half of the remainder would be of the same sex, and no more than a quarter of the rest would be near your age. That leaves five or six girls for the average boy to choose from. What if they were all homely? Maybe you would have to marry your cousin, as people frequently did.

Thinking on the harshness of medieval life should cause us to reflect on modern opportunities. I know thousands of people, perhaps tens of thousands. In some hours of some days I encounter hundreds. The same is true of most modern people.

We live in the most mobile time in history. I can remember preaching to farmers in the rural churches of Middle Tennessee who had never left the county of their birth. But I have not had that experience lately. Most everyone has traveled to the next county, and the state beyond, and the state beyond that. Many have visited foreign nations.

Such thoughts highlight our opportunities and responsibilities. I remember thirty years ago going through Harold Dowdy’s card file where he kept a hundred names all the time of people that he was trying to teach the gospel And I know of churches today that are teaching several hundred people at a time through correspondence courses and home studies. It is possible today to be acquainted with Christians in many lands. In just a few hours, one can go places that would have taken weeks only a hundred years ago.

I have wondered lately what a medieval Christian would have thought when he read the Great Commission: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). In the profound personal confinement of the middle ages, could one even imagine the dimensions of that command?

Surely no generation in history has been better able to comprehend the Great Commission. “All the world” and “every creature” are a part of our consciousness. We know they are there, and, within certain limits, we have access to the world and its creatures. It is fitting that good men in our time show a growing concern about taking the gospel to other lands.

In some ways, however, our world is not so different from that of the middle ages. While we encounter thousands of people during our lives, we do not deeply influence many. One hundred might be a good number to keep in mind. If you come truly to know that many people, if you can share with them the things that you deeply believe, that probably will be a productive lifetime’s work.

Technology, modern communications and transportation rightly set our minds to soaring about the contemporary potential to spread the good news. On the other hand, your life, like the lives of medieval people, is made up of a few years composed of twenty-four hour days. You will fill it up with one personal encounter after another. Live life wisely. Make those personal relations worth something. If you significantly touch one hundred lives, you will have done pretty well.

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