2018

I sometimes wonder why I am still here.  If I live six months into this new year, I will have lived 70 years.  So many of those who started the journey with me, or joined me along the way are no longer traveling the roads of this life.  I remember high school friends who died before they ever had a chance to worry about middle age issues.  I remember so many folks who sat in the pews and listened to me preach Sunday after Sunday who died without the blessing of the years I have counted.  I know I am not the first to wonder, "Why me, and why not them?" but such is still where I find myself going from time to time.

 

All we really know for certain is that some live longer than others and that life is a most fragile thing.  Regardless of the number of years we are allotted,  what is a terrible thing is not a shorter or a longer life, but one that is wasted.  Whatever the years we are given, they are given.  They are a gift from God.  Even as we had nothing to do with when or where we were born, neither do we have anything to do with how many we have.  Oh, we may choose a healthy lifestyle which may give us some advantage, but the number still is in the hands of the Giver. 

Like any gift God gives, He does not give so that the recipient is exalted, but so that the one who receives from Him might live according to His purposes.  The bottom line is that our life counts for something in the plan of God.  It is not something to handle carelessly and certainly it is not something to waste.  The only way to live without wasting our days, the only way to make the most of the time we have is to make sure we live well and according to His plan one day at a time.  Otherwise, we are likely to come to the end and looking behind at what amounts to a wasted trip.