Time

Buried Alive

Blog_StuffI don’t want to be buried alive. And I would guess if a survey were taken on the ways people least want to die, being buried alive would top the charts. Yet quietly, imperceptibly, it’s happening. Here. Now. In our own homes. Each day, we are suffocating unaware.

Who is the evil perpetrator seeking to steal our lives?

If a crime scene investigation series were devoted to finding the villain behind the madness, it would take the slyest of sleuths to crack the case—because the antagonist is among the least noticed and most unsuspected, and so much the object of our affections that we would never believe it a silent killer.

Are you in suspense wondering who the evil nemesis could be? Let me ease your curiosity. It’s…our stuff.

That’s right. Our stuff. Stop and think back to the moment you first noticed your lifeblood draining, your strength failing. It may have been in the midst of that endless succession of phone calls to customer service trying to resolve an issue with that “thing” once so needed. It may have been the last time you attempted to organize your basement or garage into some semblance of sanity. Or maybe it was when you walked by your teen’s bedroom and found them them swallowed alive by electronic gadgets as the slow-dawning realization came upon you…that a significant chunk of your labor was spent to pay for those gadgets now stealing your child away.

Yes, we need things for daily life, but when those things start to devour our life, it gets dangerous. Our precious time is spent working for, purchasing, cleaning, maintaining, refurbishing, storing, organizing, and getting rid of…things. We work extra hours, spend time away from family, all so we can have stuff we think we need, only to realize this stuff has robbed us of what we need even more.

I don’t want to come to the end of my life and regret that my time was spent on things that gather dust. I don’t want to waste my breath on things that rot, or my labor on that which can be burned in the fire. There is an allure to the temporary: it comes cloaked in light only to steal our lives. God, help us…that we do not fall victim.

“There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” 2 Corinthians 4:18 (MSG)

Source: Buried Alive

Photo Credit: All my worldly possessions… | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

A Worthy Legacy

Blog_CompassAndMapI would think the reality of life’s brevity would move us to nobler endeavors. As for me, it moves me to seek my purpose for being here. It makes me want to leave a worthy legacy, even if unrecognized by the masses.

 

Source: Life IS Short

Photo Credit:Free photo: Map Of The World, Compass, Antique – Free Image on …

Number my Days

Blog_PocketWatch

“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.” (Psalm 39:4-5)

 

Source: Life IS Short

Photo Credit: Pocket watch – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Matter of When

Blog_ShellsInSand

Despite our differences, we all have one thing in common: we’re mortal. The only distinction is timing. It’s a matter of when.

 

Source: Life IS Short

Photo Credit: Shells on Sand

Life IS Short

Blog_HourglassYou may be younger than you think. It depends how long you’re going to live. And you may be older than you think…it depends on when you’re going to die.

Despite our differences, we all have one thing in common: we’re mortal. The only distinction is timing. It’s a matter of when.

Some of my high school friends believed they had their lives stretched indefinitely before them—until sadly, tragically, and suddenly they were gone. They were older than they thought. At eighty and almost every year after, my husband’s grandma returned to the Philippines “to die.” But she was younger than she thought, living to be one month shy of 108.

No matter much time we’re given, we will one day breathe our final breath. And when we do, a fleeting thought will pass through our fading minds. “I can’t believe it’s already over. It was too…short.”

A recent scandal uncovered the secret lives of clients who succumbed to a business’ motto: “Life is short. Have an affair.” Really? Is that what we want our legacy to be? “Here lies Unfaithful. Wrecked many lives for the fulfillment of his own. Now just a corpse without a memory, while leaving behind memories of the pain he wrought.”

I would think the reality of life’s brevity would move us to nobler endeavors. As for me, it moves me to seek my purpose for being here. It makes me want to leave a worthy legacy, even if unrecognized by the masses.

At the end of our lives, do we want to be known for building, or for destroying? For loving, or for hating? For bringing freedom, or bondage? For living to gratify our fading flesh, or to benefit our generation…and generations to come? Because only God knows when we’ll take our final breath.
 
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.” (Psalm 39:4-5)

Skeletons

Blog_SkeletonSeen a lot of skeletons lately? I have. They seem to be everywhere these days—lying in garden beds, hanging from trees, lining the clearance aisles at the store. And while these skeletons are mere plastic replicas of the real thing, they serve as a reminder. Not just to buy tons of candy to pass out to costumed kids over the weekend. No, they are a reminder of something much more sobering.

Beneath our fashionable clothes and beyond our fading flesh, a skeleton is what holds us together. And when we’re gone, that skeleton is all that will be left of our bodies.

During a trip to a third world country, I walked through an impoverished graveyard where skeletons lined the pathways. My face-to-face encounter with those empty eye sockets and fleshless bones awakened me to the reality of my own mortality. I won’t be here long, no matter how slowly time seems to pass.

It’s easy to get sucked in to the monotonous routine of everyday life, forgetting how fleeting it all is. It’s tempting to invest time and resources on the needs and desires of my flesh, neglecting to consider it’s just a temporary house. How many hours have I spent worrying about how I look or how others perceive my external appearance, when this flesh is destined for the grave?

We are more, so much more. And life is more, so much more. When I stare at the skeletons in the neighborhood yards, I’m reminded again and again. I don’t want to live for short-lived gratification. I want my life to count for something that won’t rot in a casket with my bones.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)