Jeremiah 28:16 – “Therefore thus says Adonai: I am about to send you away from off the face of the earth. This year you will die since you have spoken apostasy against Adonai.” TLV

I realize that speaking of death has morbidity that many reject and avoid like the plague.  However, it is a reality that each of us will face, therefore a topic that we should not fear.  I want to look into my title question, “What if this year was your last?” In doing so, I hope to challenge our hearts to learn to live life to the fullest and be the most productive and useful for the Kingdom of God possible.

The sandfly is born at daylight and dies at dark.  That is a long life for the sand fly.  Man lives, 70, 80, 90, or more but those years are far too short for a being made in the image and likeness of God.  The average person spends their time learning one art, one trade, one profession, and everything else is postponed. 

Occasionally, there is another Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Mozart, or Einstein who masters architecture, sculpture, painting, music, science, civil engineering, and all in one life.   In the world of literature, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was unique.  At his death, he left one hundred manuscripts carefully outlined and with big promise, but not one of them was complete.  Lord Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, was the leader of his generation in philanthropy.  He worked for coal miners, chimney sweeps, orphans, and castaways.  But while dying, he said that he had just started his reforms.

There is so much to do and so little time to accomplish all our hearts and minds desire.  The goal and drive to ‘do something’ that abides and outlives you are escribed upon most hearts.  We want to leave a lasting legacy.

We go to the museum and see bird tracks fixed in sandstone.  They left a lasting impression.  We can visit the old Warwick Castle in England and find dented helmets, broken shields, and nicked swords, all used by King Alfred’s men.  These remain though the men who wore or used them have long since departed this life.

We can visit the Egyptian room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and see mummies that are yellow and dry.  Those mummies would crumble at the touch of a finger and beside them, there are seeds of wheat that ripened three thousand or more years ago.  Wherever we go and whatever we see brings to light that man, at his best, is temporary and mortal. 

THE LIFE OF JESUS, ON EARTH, WAS AN ABBREVIATED LIFE…

The consciousness of this was a catalyst that drove Him to work as no other has ever worked.  Every day he felt the pressure of that reality.  He said, “I must work while it is yet day.” (John 9:4) He kept no office hours and did not limit Himself to a 40-hour workweek.  Often, while others slept, He prepared Himself for the next day in prayer.  Jesus knew as we know that He was accountable for all that He did.  He had an assignment and he focused on it constantly.

The sense of the brevity of life should make every day precious to us.  The knowledge of the limitation of our time here on earth demands order and time management.  It should cause us to refuse aimlessness.  We cannot afford to drift!  The world cannot afford for us to drift!  We have a mission and a commission! 

Can you imagine the scene if a person approached an airline ticket counter and asked for a ticket?  The agent would ask, “What city?”  But the response would be, “It doesn’t matter, any city will do!”  Sadly, multitudes of people live their lives in exactly that manner.  They seem to be on a mission to kill time and get a new thrill’

There are multitudes who drift from the beach to the casino.  They jet from Broadway to Paris.  They float from cocktail party to cocktail party.  Their chief ambition, killing time and seeking a new thrill, is their biggest enemy and problem. It is purpose that turns a mob into a regiment.  It is thought and motive that organizes sounds into a song.  It is a blueprint that makes a pile of bricks a building. 

What mercy will there be for the trifler on the day of judgment?  May God help us to realize that this time we have on earth is a precious commodity not to be wasted.  It is time for the world and the church to hear the Gospel Truth from the pulpits and over the airwaves.  Life is too short to allow it to be lived without purpose, unorganized, and aimless. 

I want to address this further and will in the next devotional, but for now, I pray that the LORD of Hosts will enlighten your minds to see the value of your days here on earth. 

May His Blessings be yours today and every day!