Michelangelo's reality check

My life's journey has finally arrived
After a stormy sea, in a fragile boat, at the common port
Through which all must past to render an account and explanation of their every act,
Evil and devout.

So now I fully recognise how my fond imagination
Which made art for me an idol and a tyrant
Was laden with error as is that which all me desire to their own harm.
What will now become of my former thoughts of love
Empty yet happy, if I am now approaching a double death?
Of one I am quite certain and the other threatens me.

Neither painting nor sculpting can any longer quieten my soul
Turned now to that divine love which on the cross
To embrace us, opened wide it's arms

This is a poem by Michelangelo written near his time of death. I came across it while visiting the Santa Maria museum in Florence. Europe was spectacular, I learnt so much about Medieval and Renaissance art and architecture, and I was really taken aback by how much time artists devoted themselves to their work. There was this massive frame holding a painting, and I remembered our guide telling us that the artist spent about 20 years just carving that one frame to hold that painting. Michelangelo's work was really celebrated during his time and even until today, and he was quite a religious man - and this was certainly reflected in his artistic creations. I wonder if he had really good intentions of doing his work for God, to honour Him with his amazing artistic abilities. However, in this poem, I feel that it paints a picture of a man whose work became his god and who is becoming acutely aware that his work is actually meaningless and incomparable to the beauty of God's display of divine love in Jesus' death on the cross. This man, as superior as he is compared to other men in his artistic abilities, is just a man before his Creator.

What will you benefit if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul? - said Jesus in Matthew 16:26

I have seen it - really successful people at the end of their careers, realising a successful career was meaningless, it did not fully satisfy their souls - there's more. 

Tim Keller talks about "the work under the work". He was referring to this inner murmur we have where work becomes a way of defining us, qualifying us, whether it is to ourselves or others, that we are capable and worth something. And that work under the work that slowly eats away at us because our souls will never be fully satisfied no matter how hard we work or how successful we are.