Someone once said, “Life is too short to be serious all the time. So if you can’t laugh at yourself, just call me; I’ll laugh at you!” Actually, life is too short for lots of things.
When you forget how short life is, you lose perspective. Without the proper perspective it is easy to forget which things are truly important.
Life really IS too short for a lot of things.
Life is too short to stay angry.
Life is too short not to pursue your purpose.
Life is too short to work all the time.
Life is too short not to forgive.
Life is too short to live in fear.
Life is too short not to love someone with all your heart.
Life is too short to give up on your vision.
Life is too short not to press on and take hold of all that God has for you.
Oh yeah, and life is too short to drink bad coffee. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
Today’s verse is a prayer for perspective:
TEACH US TO REALIZE THE BREVITY OF LIFE, SO THAT WE MAY GROW IN WISDOM
Maggie, one of the folks who voluntarily helps the CEEC.CHURCH’s Afghan team is a military wife. I regularly get messages from her about families moving from Afghanistan to other locations, questions about current threat assessments in one city or another, and even requests to help provide food or transport assistance. But a few days after Christmas last year, I got a message from her that brought me to my knees. It said, “If you have a prayer to spare, today is the 5 year anniversary of my daughter’s passing,” and was accompanied by photos of a precious, young girl.
I immediately called Maggie, and she and I prayed and cried together as her husband and family listened in. She said that she had come to take comfort in the fact that her child had passed away right after Christmas, because it was as though her daughter had been a sort of special gift to God. Yes, you read that right – a gift TO GOD. That is a perspective inspired by wisdom!
TEACH US TO REALIZE THE BREVITY OF LIFE, SO THAT WE MAY GROW IN WISDOM
Josef Ton is a Romanian pastor who was exiled for his stance for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and against the brutal dictatorship of President Ceausescu. At one point he spoke about a time when the Romanian Secret Police (the RSP) threatened to kill him in his pulpit the following Sunday if he dared to step into it to preach. He said, “That will really help focus you as you prepare for the sermon which may be your last.” Josef had the brevity of life in absolute focus. As it happened, the RSP did not kill him that Sunday, but arrested him.
His perspective is perhaps best illustrated by what happened during his interrogation. The RSP again threatened him with death if he refused to stop “perverting the nation” with his preaching. Here is the gist of his reply, as I remember hearing it from him …
“You threaten me with death, because you don’t know I have already died. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Many of my messages are on tapes, and they are all over the nation. If you kill me, you’re just going to sprinkle my blood on them. People will say, ‘That Josef must really have believed what he preached about if he was willing to die for it. I should listen again.’ When you kill me, it will magnify the impact of my preaching a hundred times over and, I will be immediately in the presence of Jesus; so you’re ‘threatening” me with victory, reward and glory. Go on – DO IT!”
The RSP refused to give him such a “victory” and released him. And Josef grew in wisdom.
TEACH US TO REALIZE THE BREVITY OF LIFE, SO THAT WE MAY GROW IN WISDOM
You are probably not going to be arrested and threatened with death for preaching the Gospel. Probably. But you and I both face the same ticking clock. Life is short, and we only have so much time to do what we have been called to do and to become the one we have been created to be. The thing about life is that it’s too short.
It’s too short to let non-essential things distract you from your true calling and purpose. It’s too short not to give Christ all you have to give, and let Him use you in ways that will be more fulfilling and world-changing than ANYTHING you could possibly imagine.
What are YOU pouring your life into right now? What has the focus of your attention, your dedication, your finances and your heart? How will what you choose to do TODAY impact your tomorrow? Or someone else’s tomorrows? How are you impacting eternity?
You CAN impact eternity, you know. You were created with a purpose, you are a masterpiece of God’s grace. Ask Him and He will fill you, lead you, guide you and equip you.
Life is too short not to be who Christ called you to be.
