Life is Short
James 3:14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life?
For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
What is your life?
For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Life is uncertain, but guess what guys, life is also brief. Light a match and watch how long it lasts. There’s an Old Testament book called Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, the wisest man (apart from Jesus) who ever lived, towards the end of his life. Through that book, you’re going to read about 30 times that life is “vanity”. I’ll rephrase that for you: “Meaningless”. It’s meaningless. Solomon is looking back on his life, and for a long time he followed the Lord almost perfectly, was outstanding in the things he accomplished. Then he decided to live a little, and ended up with 700 wives, 300 girlfriends, and I don’t know how many mothers-in-law, and can you imagine the chaos in his life? He got to the end, and he said life is meaningless.
The Message says, “Life is a wisp of smoke. It’s gone.” We find that it goes faster the older you get. When you’re young, you can’t wait until you drive, you can’t wait until you graduate high school. You start seeing it flip in college students, these are the last finals you’ll ever take, you’re not ready, and you start wanting it to slow down in your early twenties. Pump the brakes, slow it down! We all have that crazy family member who pinches your cheeks all the time, “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown” and a few years later, you become them!! And you suddenly catch yourself doing that, and think, “OH, NO!” You suddenly begin to consider that wisp of smoke a little more.
Nici and I recently celebrated our anniversary, and as she was flipping through our wedding album, showing the boys, and talking about how young I looked. Another thing was noticed by Nici, she said there were at least five people in those pictures who are no longer with us. You begin to realize how quickly life moves. So we take this verse either as a great encouragement or as a great discouragement. We need to look at it as a great encouragement to not waste any more time. We’ve wasted enough already. Everybody’s going to die, and most are going to die with a lot of regrets.
I have a rope here at our church that hangs here over the speaker. It’s approximately 70 feet long, and we used it as an experiment when we were still meeting in our living room. If this rope represents all of time from creation to when we go be with Jesus. So it’s 70 feet long, pretend it’s 7000 years, here’s what we have. You have this right here, this red tape – now if you’re in the front row, there’s a little black line on this red tape. It’s tiny. That represents our retirement. We work our tails off for that little black line, and look what we’re missing. What are your priorities? Our focus is in the wrong place, because that little black line represents the retirement years! We’re working so hard, saving up everything, building our 401k’s, changing investments, watching the market, because we want that little black line to be amazing. You know, when I’m too old to enjoy it. That’s what we tend to focus on. Your life in light of all eternity, you’d have a hard time finding your little bit of it, and you’d never see your retirement at all. You know what people say when they get to that point, where they know they’re close to the end of their lives? The don’t say, “Bring me all my trophies one more time. Can I see my GPA just once more? Bring me my resume, man I had a rocking resume, look what I accomplished. Bring me my performance reviews. Bring me the org chart so I can see where I am just one more time.” You don’t hear that, do you? It’s ultimately the people around you, and the memories that will matter to you, and those that you take with you to the kingdom of God. That’s what will matter.
One of my mentors said, “It’s okay that you’re bivocational, Jason. If you have a dollar, you can do a dollars’ worth of work for the Lord. If I have a million dollars, I can do a million dollars’ worth. Both are Godly, but one will go farther.” What are your priorities? Are you still saving for that big house, newer car, game, new couch, bigger TV, what are your priorities? You don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring.
Nici and I recently celebrated our anniversary, and as she was flipping through our wedding album, showing the boys, and talking about how young I looked. Another thing was noticed by Nici, she said there were at least five people in those pictures who are no longer with us. You begin to realize how quickly life moves. So we take this verse either as a great encouragement or as a great discouragement. We need to look at it as a great encouragement to not waste any more time. We’ve wasted enough already. Everybody’s going to die, and most are going to die with a lot of regrets.
I have a rope here at our church that hangs here over the speaker. It’s approximately 70 feet long, and we used it as an experiment when we were still meeting in our living room. If this rope represents all of time from creation to when we go be with Jesus. So it’s 70 feet long, pretend it’s 7000 years, here’s what we have. You have this right here, this red tape – now if you’re in the front row, there’s a little black line on this red tape. It’s tiny. That represents our retirement. We work our tails off for that little black line, and look what we’re missing. What are your priorities? Our focus is in the wrong place, because that little black line represents the retirement years! We’re working so hard, saving up everything, building our 401k’s, changing investments, watching the market, because we want that little black line to be amazing. You know, when I’m too old to enjoy it. That’s what we tend to focus on. Your life in light of all eternity, you’d have a hard time finding your little bit of it, and you’d never see your retirement at all. You know what people say when they get to that point, where they know they’re close to the end of their lives? The don’t say, “Bring me all my trophies one more time. Can I see my GPA just once more? Bring me my resume, man I had a rocking resume, look what I accomplished. Bring me my performance reviews. Bring me the org chart so I can see where I am just one more time.” You don’t hear that, do you? It’s ultimately the people around you, and the memories that will matter to you, and those that you take with you to the kingdom of God. That’s what will matter.
One of my mentors said, “It’s okay that you’re bivocational, Jason. If you have a dollar, you can do a dollars’ worth of work for the Lord. If I have a million dollars, I can do a million dollars’ worth. Both are Godly, but one will go farther.” What are your priorities? Are you still saving for that big house, newer car, game, new couch, bigger TV, what are your priorities? You don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring.