Living like life will never end

My little teddy bear, Michael, testifies to one thing: useful one moment, redundant the next. He’s privileged to sit on display in my study, but the truth is he’s of no use now… not like my son’s teddy bear, Jack. He’s a playmate, a source of conversation, and a crucial bedtime partner at night time.

Yet, both teddy bears, Jack and Michael, will have disappeared in one hundred years. It’ll be the same for us. One hundred years seems like an age; an eternity. But it’s nothing like it. One hundred years goes about as quickly as one hundred years. It only seems slow to us.

Think of the age of the earth. One hundred years is nothing. To the Lord, one day is like one thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8). Nothing lasts.

This is not depressing. It’s illuminating, invigorating, empowering.

What is your life? What is mine? What is life? Life will end. And what will it matter? Will it matter?

Certainly, there will be a legacy we will leave — good, bad, otherwise or nothing significant. Yet, every one of us will leave something significant behind. None of us lives in a vacuum.

We are commended to make the most of our time (Ephesians 5:16), and to be well aware, because the days are evil. What does this mean? It means that if we’re not careful we’ll waste our lives on any one or number of sins. Our legacy will be diluted and diminished. We only have this one time period to do what only we can do. It really is now or never.

Make changes to your life now if you want. If you like the way your life is, great. But if you don’t, do something now. It’s up to you. Nobody can do for you what only you can do for yourself. Just let me ask you this question: do you live to do God’s will?

Or are you happy wasting your life? Would you be so happy if facing God in eternity were a certainty?

We must live as if life will end someday, because it will, and it does. Death is a shock to our system, but not as much if we live in the light of that certain pending reality. It comes like a thief in the night.

Life will end one day, but it’s not the end of what we lived for. May our prayer be that our good legacy endures. Make the most of your time.