What about today?

November 7, 2006

By William E. Richardson

“Teach us to number our days” (Psalm 90:12, NKJV).

When the man who operates the local newspaper keeled over with a heart attack, it shocked our community. He seemed tirelessly full of life. He was busy, but didn’t appear to be burdened. He was healthy and only in his 50s. He and his wife had a 6-year-old daughter.

I’ve sat in churches and funeral parlors listening to the sermons preached on such occasions. Ministers often praise the virtues of the departed, who left this life at a “young age.” People whisper things like, “If only he’d had another 20 years.”

None of us know how many years God will grant us on earth. While the best thing that can happen to a Christian is to go to heaven, most of us aren’t eager to go right now. The old saying is “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.”

After all, we have families to raise and goals to accomplish. As God’s servants, it’s normal for us to sense at the end of each day we have unfinished tasks. Yet, every day a few of us cross the finish line to end our race sooner than we expected.

We all know the clock is ticking, but we don’t know for how much longer. Doctors tell patients they have so many months or weeks left, but even they can’t nail it down to a precise moment. Why doesn’t God give us the timeframe for that appointment with eternity?

Could it be He wants us to live each day not knowing, so we’ll spend our days as purposeful as if we did know?

Let’s say you knew you had 30 days to live. What would you do differently? What investments for eternity would you make while you still could?

Since none of us know how many days we have left, we should make the most of every day we are given. It may help to make a short list, a few specific “must do” goals. Ones you can finish in the next 30 days, or next two weeks, or even this week.

Any day now, the next voice you hear may be saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Let’s stay ready to hear those words, always making the most of however many more days God gives us here.

William E. Richardson is senior pastor of Afton (Iowa) Assembly of God.