The Steve Miller Band sings in their
song Fly Like an Eagle, “Time keeps
on slippin', slippin', slippin' Into the future.” We really don’t need a song
to remind us of that reality. Every year as one’s birthday rolls around one is
reminded that another year has finished or begun. It all depends upon one’s
perspective. The pessimist looks at a birthday as a countdown to the end of
life. The optimist sees this anniversary as the launch into a year of new
possibilities. Needless to say, it does mark that time is marching on and
another notch has been made in the calendar of life.
I just passed another age milestone
a few days ago and have been reminded with cards and Facebook greetings that I
have not gotten younger – as if my body needed to be reminded! Then I came
across this thought in a devotional booklet that Bob Boardman, who at age 59,
wrote, “If the 70 years of a normal life span were squeezed into a single
24-hour day, it would now be 8:30 in the evening in my life. . . . Time is
slipping by so rapidly.” Well, I am older than 59, so I assume for me it’s beyond
8:30 and close to my bedtime!
The Bible gives a number of
reminders about the brevity of life too. The Psalmist David writes, “Each man’s
life is but a breath” (Psalm 39:5). The New Testament writer James agrees by
saying, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and
then vanishes” (James 4:14). These truths certainly smack against the thought
we often have about our invincibility – a thought very keen when we are younger
but less so as we age. Perhaps that is why Peter pictures humans this way,
"All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the
field; the grass withers and the flowers fall” (1 Peter 1:24). He either is
referring to or drawing the same conclusion as the Psalmist (103:15-16), “As
for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it
no longer.”
How should one think in view of
these realities? Thomas Manton concludes, "A man's greatest care should be
for that place where he dwelleth longest; eternity should be his scope." This
is great advice for people who are designed by God to be eternal.
In what way should our perspective
be altered? Our living would be adjusted. Paul writes, “Therefore be careful
how you walk [live], not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your
time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16). Too often the hours and
days of our life are squandered in trivial pursuits rather than in wise endeavors.
Does it really matter that we rush to someone’s Facebook page or their latest
Tweet to see where they are, what they are doing, or what they had for
breakfast? Yet often hours are consumed in technology that has little
significant impact in one’s life.
Perhaps where we invest our lives
needs to be altered. Jesus advises people, “Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and
steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). On another occasion
Jesus shared a parable with a man who was squabbling with his brother over an
inheritance. The story talks about a man who could only think about amassing stuff
on earth. Jesus says that man was a fool and concludes, “So is the one who lays
up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 21). Investments
reflect our hearts and reveal how focused we are on eternity. Many relationships
have been damaged by persons pursuing the American dream only to discover that
in the process that have created a nightmare for themselves. Our mates and our
children are more likely to remember the time we invested in them rather than
the trinkets for which we worked so hard to buy them.
Over the years I have planned
hundreds of funerals with families who had experienced the death of a loved
one. I sat with them and heard the stories they told about their family member.
Rarely can I recall those grieving loved ones talking about material
possessions. They spoke about things that had made an eternal impact in their
lives like love, support, care, and many other things that money cannot buy.
Rick Warren wisely concluded in his
book The Purpose Driven Life, “You weren't put on earth to be remembered.
You were put here to prepare for eternity.” Remember, “Time keeps on slippin’,
slippin’, into the future!”
