THE CLOCK IS TICKING FOR US ALL

 Psalms 90:12 (NIV)

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

               Most of us live with a common illusion. It is the idea that we have all the time in the world. The future seems to stretch out ahead of us with unending potential. But it is an illusion. The reality is that the timeline of our life is finite; it has a terminus point.

               There comes point in all of our lives when we realize that we have more days behind us than ahead of us. Even if we live to be 100, in the overall scheme of things, it is a very short amount of time. As Moses expressed it in Psalm 90, The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Psalms 90:10 (NIV) James puts it even more dramatically when he writes, Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:13-14 (NIV) No matter how we look at it, life it short and our time on earth is fleeting.

               The question is then, what should we do with the time that we have? Moses instructs us to “number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Being aware of just how short our life is is an essential ingredient to living life well. We can either waste our life or we can invest our life for eternity.

               C.S. Lewis wrote that all of us are shaping the person we will be in eternity by the way we live our life today. We are either in the process of becoming something so glorious that we can not imagine it or something so hideous that we would be repelled by the image. His point is that living our current life with eternity in mind is not only important, it is essential.

               This is an idea that we find threaded through all of scripture. What we do with the time we have on this earth matters. It matters to God and it should matter to us. Each day of our life is an opportunity to grow in Christlikeness. As Paul writes in Ephesians 5:15-16, Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

               Currently the Olympic games are going on in Paris. Every athlete who is competing in those games knows the importance of redeeming the time. In order for them to perform at their best, they needed to invest hours and hours into practice, preparing for their ultimate goal. Paul often used this image to illustrate how we live our lives. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 (NIV) The last thing that anyone of us wants is to get to the end of our lives and learn that we have been disqualified for the prize.

               Right now, my father is edging his way to the finish line of life. I don’t know when he will cross that line, but I know that the time is short. It has caused me to think again about my own life. How will I use the days that I have left on this earth? Will I use them for the glory of God or will I waste them on the fleeting pleasures of this world? To be brutally honest, it will probably be a combination of both. But I can honestly say that my eyes are on the goal. My deepest desire is to use my time on earth wisely, so that one day I might stand in Christ’s presence and hear Him say, well done, good and faithful servant.

2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NIV)
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.