I was recently watching a documentary of a film shot in 1905 in San Francisco. Aside from being enthralled by the signs of the time, and now antiquated relics of the day, the commentator began throwing out facts and statistics about 1905. One that shot like an arrow into my grey matter and brought me to an attentive position was "The life expectancy of a man in 1905 was 47." I turned 47 today. If this was 1905 I'd be on borrowed time as of tomorrow. I'm dying.
Mark Driscoll, Pastor of the Mars Hill Church, just announced last week on Facebook that he's 40 and his life is half over. That's a rather bold statement, but one that's meant to make a point rather than state a fact. Fact is that if I make it to 80 I will have made it farther than any male in recent generations of my family. Truth is I'm dying. I'm sliding down the backside of the bell curve regardless of how you do the math.
I recently sent an e-mail to a friend with some thoughts in reference to a book they're reading about creating a life that matters in regard to Christ and the Gospel. I posed this question amongst others: "If you knew you only had 365 days to live what would you do with your life?" It's not to be morbid but rather to bring honesty into perspective. Do our lives 'honestly' reflect Christ's passion for the lost or do they merely intersect it on Sunday mornings?
It's my own question that haunts me now: What if I had but 365 days left? What if today I was to be my last? What if it's going to be next Friday? Or luckier yet, when I'm 80? The question doesn't really challenge the date in which I shall pass. But rather it forces me to consider what's really important. It makes me look at the clock and calendar in relation to the Cross and ask myself "Is this the best use of my time and talents?" "Is this really that important?" If I am called by God to be one of His own and to live a life that proclaims His greatness then is what I'm doing the best use of the time and breathe he has given me? Disappointingly the answer more often than not is "No, it isn't."
Let's face it. A great majority of us will pass into the dust of time and within a few years afterward may, or may not, be fondly remembered on occasion by a handful of friends and family. A few of us will leave a carving, etching, or some other token of our name embellished on a decade or two of time beyond our last step. And a very, very, very few will leave a readable, memorable, mark on history until history itself decides they are no longer relevant. The Truth, being what the truth is, dictates that I am dying . . . and so are you. Life, as we know it today, is merely a passing and our demise just a stepping stone into a vast eternity.
"So what matters?" I ask myself. Two thoughts help me answer that question.
First, I'm beginning to realize that we are not called to Christ to live a life that is plush and comfortable by cultural standards. While indeed some of us are set free from the shackles of addiction and habitual sins, Christ's eternal promise isn't meant to deliver us into a mortal life of easy living and problem free days. Christ calls us to a life of purpose and hardship brought on by a world that often doesn't get "it". Christ calls us out so that we may be sought out and seen by a world that thinks we're a bit "odd" and "interesting" to say the least. We're not called out to be significant in and about ourselves, but rather significant in the work we do in Him and for Him. For me that new awareness has brought on a re-evaluation of my life's goals as I ponder "What to do next?" with my life.
Second, what we have to "boast" about tells everyone how we use our time and talents. What we say, do, and even wear lets everyone know what is significant in our lives. If I met you on the street and we started conversing about life I sadly believe we may get close to exhausting the almanac of my life before you found out that behind the façade breathes a soul that longs for a full-on pursuit with Christ. That's seems strangely amiss. If you take a minute and examine your life, as I am mine, and realize you've never missed an episode of Seinfeld, or you make it a point to be in front of the 'magic box' every time "your" team plays, you know the final scores of every Super Bowl ever played, or you can recall all the past contestants on American Idol . . . well, maybe you begin to realize just where your time and talent go to waste. I'm not suggesting we are never to engage in "down time" but I'm beginning to discover, and wanting to separate, that which is important from that which is frivolous in pursuit of Him. Altering our natural earthly perspective is challenging and one that seems to renew itself each and every morning. In Him, in Christ, we are to find our strength and purpose in meeting that daily challenge.
"For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." ~ Paul, 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— 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. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. ~ James 4:13-17
Truth is . . . I'm dying . . . we are all dying . . . and in our silence the ticking of the seconds provide the cadence for our lives . . . minutes pass and turn into days . . . days turn into a year . . . and before long the young dauntless tigers fade into old lions, much like the passion for our pursuits . . . the question isn't just "What will we do?" . . . but rather, "What will we do today?" to renew our pursuit of Him.
