Time Flies!
“Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10, NLT).
A few years ago People Magazine published an article entitled “Dead ahead,” about a new clock that keeps track of how much time you have left to live. It calculates an average life-span of 75 years for men and 80 years for women. So you program your sex and age into the clock, from then on it will tell you how much time you have left. It sold for $99.95. I didn’t buy one but it’s an intriguing idea. The writer of the Psalms tells us “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is” (Psalm 39:4, NLT).
So, I’m 81 years old, if I live to be 90 years old, that’s approximately 8.5 more years, that’s 102 months, 442 weeks, 31,025 days, 744,600 hours. That’s all, just 744,600 hours to live, if indeed I make to 90! So I had better live every hour and every minute to its fullest.
Dr. Peter Connolly quoted a poem for me many years ago.
I have only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it,
Didn’t choose it, can’t refuse it, but it’s up to me to use it.
It is just one tiny minute, but all eternity is in it.
Ephesians 5:15-17 NLT, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”
Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it, for there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think in the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed. I took another walk around the neighborhood and realized that on this earth as it is—The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor satisfaction to the wise, nor riches to the smart, nor grace to the learned…” (Ecclesiastes 9:11,12, The Message).
Here’s another thought, this one from Colonel Potter, MASH 4077: “If you ain’t where you are, the you ain’t no place.”
Love y’all, Pastor John
