It Gets Late Way Too Early
Explore a sobering reflection on the speed of time and why we must stop ignoring the "vapor" of our lives before the sun sets on our best intentions.
The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
(Psalm 90:10)
The speed at which a normal human lifespan flashes by is shocking. If you’ve ever been a construction worker putting in twelve-hour shifts in the hot August sun or painfully watched the hands of a slow-moving clock from a hospital bed, you know that single days (or nights) can seem long. But the years are another story. They go by swiftly. As someone has said, “The days are slow, but the years are sudden.”
Moses, who wrote Psalm 90, knew that even if we live seventy or eighty years, those years escape us quickly. In a world subjected by God to “futility” (Romans 8:20), our life “is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Job put it starkly: “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue” (Job 14:1,2).
If you are young, or perhaps living more comfortably than most people in the world, you’ll probably mute these statements with a “yes, but” (or even argue that they contradict the Christian outlook). But I caution you to be careful. Charles Barkley, commenting at halftime during a lopsided basketball game, said about the team that had fallen hopelessly behind, “For these guys, the game got late way too early.” Barkley is not a theologian, but on this point, he certainly could be.
Of course, the brevity of life is one of those biblical truths that people quickly affirm and then promptly ignore. So I ask you, dear reader: how seriously — at the practical level — do you deal with the fact that our lives are “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14)? Are you “grass” (1 Peter 1:24,25) that ignores its grassiness . . . until it has become too late to play catch-up on your life’s duties?
We all know that we’ve lagged behind in our spiritual growth and that we’ve put off making much-needed improvements in our habits. But we also think we’ve got plenty of time left to get that garage of ours cleaned out and then pursue our dreams. But take it from one who knows: the time will sneak up on you — suddenly — when you will agree with an old Black neighbor of mine in Mississippi who, when I asked how he was doing, said, “The busses ain’t runnin’ and the train won’t let me ride no mo’.”
“Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late” (Benjamin Franklin).
Gary Henry - WordPoints.com