The Moments That Make A Life

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (James 4:13–17 NIV)

Time marches on, doesn’t it? Right now, we can see summer slipping away without apology. We want it to stay for just a bit longer. The Book of James describes life as a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14). In light of eternity—trillions and trillions of years residing in heaven or hell (our choice)—“Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Having just survived my third close call with death, I no longer want to fixate on the past, which is water under the bridge, or the future, which is unknowable. No. I want to live fully in the present—as in life, a present, a gift—for each moment carries with it eternal significance.

I am gloriously aware: the way my Maltese skips a step with her back right paw; the way the clouds up above tell a story of God’s goodness (Psalm 19:1–2); the diversity of cultures, backgrounds, and stories I see in people every week at church. And here it is—the awareness that God is with me in every one of those million moments that make up my life. No, I am not speaking of mysticism here, just the reality of knowing my invisible God more and more through His great and visible blessings every day.

Darren

www.reverenddarren.com

@bibleteachingcorner