Copyright © 2019 Michael A. Brown
‘So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our
hearts unto wisdom.’
(Ps. 90:12)
WE are told that as of 2015 the average lifespan of a male in
the UK is 83.5 years. So if I myself end
up having such an average lifespan, then I will have lived altogether for some
34,498 days or so (including leap-days).
Since I am presently 59+ years old, I have already lived
about 25,618 days on this earth, so that would mean I am left with some 8,880
days. Of course, I may live shorter or
longer than that, I simply do not know...
None of us do. The word of God
makes it clear that our departure from this life can come at any time. But using these figures to make the point
gives me a useful handle with which to view the future of my life and the time
I may have left to me.
When we are
young, we tend not to think about the future too much. Things seem so far away they will never
happen, and we are absorbed with the exciting interests of daily life in the
present. Later on, particularly after we
get married and our children come along, we are necessarily taken up almost
continually with all sorts of busyness which makes us feel that time is just
flying by. The days and weeks merge
together into a blur as they rush by and are quickly forgotten, remembered
perhaps only in the photographs and film videos we cared to take at the
time. And time does fly by, of
course... We learnt it in Latin classes
at school: tempus fugit, the Romans used to say.
Then in our
40s and perhaps early 50s it is not uncommon to feel that life seems to have
little purpose apart from fulfilling the immediate demands and responsibilities
that surround us. We often ask
ourselves, what are we really doing with our lives? Then sometime in our mid-50s we suddenly
realise that life really is going by just too quickly, that there isn’t an
awful lot of time left to us, and that we have actually lived much of our life
already. This realisation can make the
end of our life suddenly seem not so far away at all, in fact quite near. Eternal matters draw close and their reality
sinks in... We are fast approaching the final bend and the home straight of our
race...
Eternal
judgement, whatever non-believers or even some believers may think of it, was
considered a foundational teaching in early Christianity (Heb. 6:2). The apostles repeatedly exhorted the early
believers to live their daily lives in the light of eternal realities. Life was
short and transitory, like a fleeting shadow that does not endure; like grass
that springs up in the morning, but is dry and withered by the evening; or like
a flower that flourishes, but is then blown away by the wind (Job 14:1-2; Ps.
90:5-6, 103:15-16).
Regardless
of how busy people are or how conditioned they may have become to the secular
lifestyle surrounding them, the fact of one day leaving this life and either
entering Christ’s loving presence, enjoying the never-ending thrill of a
sin-free and perfectly happy life in heaven, and awaiting Christ’s evaluation
of our life and service as believers (2 Cor. 5:10), or being plunged
permanently and inescapably into the awful, dark and conscious reality of total
separation from the presence and life of God in Hades, is stark (Luke
16:19-31). That day is ahead for every
one of us and it is coming soon…
For the
non-believer, every day that passes by without coming to hear and respond to
the offer of salvation and eternal life in Jesus, means that s/he now has one
less day in which to come to hear and respond, and escape what is inevitably
coming their way. For the believer,
every day that is given to us presents an opportunity in which to spend time
with Jesus and serve him in some way, to perhaps tell someone about him, to
pray with someone, to spend quality time with our family members, or to serve
others in Christ’s love in whatever way.
When we
become aware of just how few days we have left to us and how quickly they are
passing, this becomes an inward exhortation to make sure that we make each day
count in some way, smaller or greater. What are we doing with our life? Life on this earth does not go on forever, and
it does have a use-by date marked on it for every one of us. We do have only a
finite number of days left in which to live, and it’s a number which decreases
by one every day. And once it’s over,
it’s over… Any day which is consumed
simply by the never-ending issues of human life or which is distracted away by
trivia, and which is wasted in terms of any opportunities we may have to live
out the kingdom of God, is a day which is lost and which we will never have
again. Chances and opportunities
ignored, missed or spurned are lost and gone, perhaps forever.
For myself,
my Christian life and ministry may have been blessed to an extent in the past,
but basking in satisfying reminiscences of past blessings does not make my
future fruitful or significant. The
question that comes to me is: What will I do with the days that are left to me,
this ever-decreasing number of days? How
will I spend them?
We need to
make a conscious effort to make each day count in some way for God’s kingdom
while it is still called today, and to make that the major focus of each day as
we live it. We need to redeem the time
and make the most of every opportunity (Eph. 5:16, Col. 4:5). Then, when we
stand before Christ, we will not be ashamed for having spurned opportunities we
were given, or for having simply wasted our lives away as believers. We will have the joy and inward peace of
knowing that at least we did what we could with it, and we will have far fewer
regrets.
So how many
days might you have left, my friend?
Have you ever numbered your own days?
In what way will you make your life count today? And what about tomorrow when it comes? Be wise, and make the most of the days you
have left. Today I have perhaps 8,880
days left, tomorrow it will be 8,879, and the day after it will be… Your clock too is ticking, and it’s counting
down real quick…
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