I have been occupied for the last two months on preserving my life, sanctifying my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and pursuing interests that are not necessarily bad, but nonetheless useless in the long term of things.

For context, in the middle of January of 2025, I decided to build a system from the Linux from Scratch book on a USB key. I succeeded in setting up a graphical environment on X and was able to even support Secure Boot with rootfs encryption on LUKS, but at the end I really asked myself why, when Gentoo or other professionally managed Linux distributions had the man power and resources to automate most of the process to ship a GNU/Linux OS ready for work.

This brought me back to Psalm 90, the prayer of Moses, when he spoke to the Lord:

Psalm 90:1–11

Book Four

From Everlasting to Everlasting

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

[1] Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. [2] Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

[3] You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” [4] For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

[5] You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: [6] in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

[7] For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. [8] You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

[9] For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. [10] The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. [11] Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? (ESV)

In recalling the countless hours in the night I spent copying and pasting commands and waiting libraries to compile to assemble a bootable image in Linux from Scratch, I had a moment to consider my time on Earth as a man that Christ died for, for His kingdom.

At 32 years old, the American dream has successfully escaped my grasp, although I should not be surprised considering it is that–a dream. But more importantly is my heart’s desire–the pursuit of the Lord’s face and seeking his Kingdom and righteousness.

If this fallen world refuses to claim my life prematurely and I end up living my allotted time on the Earth, I have to stand before the Lord as He examines my time I spent deciding what I have chosen to do for either myself or His Kingdom. This sobering thought girded my senses and allowed me to, after running a fastfetch command showing off my work, to understand why I lost two and a half weeks in building a Beyond Linux from Scratch working environment, when I had learned enough to troubleshoot and compile packages if Gentoo did not have an up to date release that I needed.

Unfortunately, I did not have an answer other than thinking it was really neat, yet at the same time I do not believe my time was wasted in putting together the BLFS system. . .

But in my prayer time with the Lord, I recall the following passage of Psalm 90:

Psalm 90:12–17

[12] So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. [13] Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! [14] Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. [15] Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. [16] Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. [17] Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (ESV)

As much as I found the LFS project rather amusing, I still believe I could have ended the effort prematurely before I considered adopting the system as a daily driver. Luckily, I did not proceed with the idea, but moved forward when I concluded enough is enough. It is time to move forward in going back to my original love, which is the Kingdom of Christ, and to my knowledge the pursuit of a fully optimized and custom Linux system is not that.