Psalms 90:10
Our lives last seventy years
or, if we are strong, eighty years.
Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow;
indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.
Have you ever considered, just how truly limited our time on this planet is. With the thought and concept of eternal life, and really narrowing it down to minutes, seconds and just this moment, with eighty years at best as an average, in seconds we would have been here a total of two billion, five hundred twenty two million, eight hundred and eighty thousand seconds. In terms of minutes it's forty two million, forty eight thousand minutes.
Like a pre-paid cell phone, I'd like to keep on feeding minutes into this life, but the creditors don't seem to know that my clocks about to run out.
Ecclesiastes 9
1 I thought about these things. Then I understood that God has power over everyone, even those of us who are wise and live right. Anything can happen to any of us, and so we never know if life will be good or bad. 2 But exactly the same thing will finally happen to all of us, whether we live right and respect God or sin and don't respect God. Yes, the same thing will happen if we offer sacrifices to God or if we don't, if we keep our promises or break them. 3 It's terribly unfair for the same thing to happen to each of us. We are mean and foolish while we live, and then we die. 4 As long as we are alive, we still have hope, just as a live dog is better off than a dead lion. 5 We know that we will die, but the dead don't know a thing. Nothing good will happen to them--they are gone and forgotten. 6 Their loves, their hates, and their jealous feelings have all disappeared with them. They will never again take part in anything that happens on this earth.
7 Be happy and enjoy eating and drinking! God decided long ago that this is what you should do. 8 Dress up, comb your hair, and look your best. 9 Life is short, and you love your wife, so enjoy being with her. This is what you are supposed to do as you struggle through life on this earth. 10 Work hard at whatever you do. You will soon go to the world of the dead, where no one works or thinks or reasons or knows anything.
11 Here is something else I have learned:
The fastest runners
and the greatest heroes
don't always win races
and battles.
Wisdom, intelligence, and skill
don't always make you healthy,
rich, or popular.
We each have our share
of bad luck.
12 None of us know when we might fall victim to a sudden disaster and find ourselves like fish in a net or birds in a trap.
Better To Be Wise than Foolish
13 Once I saw what people really think of wisdom. 14 It happened when a powerful ruler surrounded and attacked a small city where only a few people lived. The enemy army was getting ready to break through the city walls. 15 But the city was saved by the wisdom of a poor person who was soon forgotten. 16 So I decided that wisdom is better than strength. Yet if you are poor, no one pays any attention to you, no matter how smart you are.
17 Words of wisdom spoken softly
make much more sense
than the shouts of a ruler
to a crowd of fools.
18 Wisdom is more powerful
than weapons,
yet one mistake can destroy
all the good you have done.
I feel after all the struggle within this life and all that's to come, the only thing I need concern myself with is the here and now. I don't believe that God wants me to continue to twist in the wind, wrestling with my hopes and fears of forever being post-poned. I'm not angry any longer, as much as I am disappointed that millions now living will still have to die, with me being one among many. I believe God will still, make it clear to me as to what his will and purpose is for my life is, but I'd still like to believe that forever is not just a dream.
Is forever just a dream to you? Do you still long for the days of promise as to the resurection, the new heavens and the new earth? Was it really all for nothing, our struggle in and out of the truth? How could we have gotten the timing so wrong?