“So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12

A DEAR FRIEND of mine passed away recently who had fought and overcame many illnesses. After a visit with him in hospital, he shared with me how he was expecting and preparing to return home again – as he had done before. The very next day, those expectations never came to pass. Seeing him at the ‘Wake’ was painful while facing the reality he lay there motionless; a hand of friendship that frequently shook mine was now still and the contagious laughter was no longer to be heard. On the other side of the room was a video photo-collage, in motion, of his life and what was many years lived – now, only moments viewed on the screen.

Our lives are exactly that – moments, just like James 4:14 states, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Time is taken for granted for we do not always see how irreplaceably-precious each moment is, especially when we are young and thinking we’re invincible; but when we pass through our 20’s and 30’s, we realise that time indeed “waits for no man”. We wonder not just at the years, but at where the decades have gone. The years seem to dissipate like days, the older we get! Then comes the inevitable haunting question, ‘What have you done with your life thus far; what has your life amounted to?’

We are too presumptuous to think we have years ahead of us, but we have no inclination as to knowing whether or not this day or even this hour ‘could’ be our last. Listen to David’s thirty-ninth Psalm in verse four and five, “O Lord, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, You have made my days a few handbreadths, and my life is as nothing before You. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”

It is not so much how many years we may keep alive, but whether we have really lived our life. Many exist for a long time, but few live with impact in a short time. Better to die living than to exist dying. Look at the lives of Robert Murray M’Cheyne and David Brainerd; both never reached the age of the 30, but ponder over their lives; study how they lived. Keith Green barely reached his 28^th year but so much life was poured through so few years that touched millions with the impact of eternity. These three men, among countless others, lived with the impression of eternity burned upon their lives. There are many who have lived to the age of 90 but have wasted those years. Jonathan Edwards prayed, “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.” Leonard Ravenhill said, “We have such a short time to prepare for eternity.” Our life here is just a drop in the ocean compared to the life hereafter and how we live now determines where and how we will spend eternity.

One of my former managers once said that our lives should be divided into three different categories in order to live a balanced life, each amounting to eight hours multiplied by three, giving us our twenty-four-hour day cycle: eight hours of work, eight hours of leisure and eight hours of sleep. It is shocking to realize that on average we sleep one-third of our lives away; if we were to live for sixty years, we sleep away 20 of it! I’m sure our lives could be proportioned and prioritised more to the glory of God, in regards to our sleep and leisure time. Each day is a gift that, on the Great Day of Judgement, we will give an account for.

It is embarrassing when such men as Brainerd and M’Cheyne genuinely lamented over how little they had accomplished, but when we read of their lives we are amazed that such things – and so many of them – could be achieved through one human being in such a short duration of time. Their lives were spent-out for the glory of God; every breath lived for Him while their bodies were wracked with ill-health and pain, but their spirits soaring in the will of God.

The Apostle Paul’s body wasn’t wearing away just because of age; his body was bruised, broken and exposed to many dangers that took its toll – and all for the glory of God. Does that sound glorious or ridiculous to us in the natural who fight to preserve our physique in this narcissistic age? Or do we see the wisdom of, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17)? It is such believers who reckoned with the fact that their life here was short in light of eternity and such that had more impact in the world for the kingdom of God – they were men and women who lived as if dying, redeeming the time that will echo throughout eternity.