Are you rejoicing that you’re alive?  I want to share with you a story that happened two days ago.  I was at the intersection of Highway 17 which is a major six lane road with a speed limit of 45 mph (which means people travel 55-60 mph).  The traffic on Highway 17 was stopped as the road opposite had a green arrow and entered the main highway.  Then I got the green light and as I proceeded into the intersection I detected movement from the left.  There were several cars stopped at the red light but a car in the third lane was traveling at a high rate speed (the person did not have any awareness of or concern for the red light).  I hit the brakes and averted the accident, if I had not seen the car I would have been broadsided on the driver’s side – it could have been fatal.  I realize the Apostle Paul writes, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), however, I had not finished painting the living room for Jeanne.

On the other hand I could have been seriously injured.  Rather than going to my next appointment I would have been on my way to the hospital.  As I was thinking of my close call James 4:13-15 came to mind,

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”  Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

I’m thankful my life was preserved and I reflected on the thought that God still has work on earth for me to do.  I thought of the aphorism, “Live everyday as if it were your last and learn as if you were to live forever.”  How often do I have this mindset?  Samuel Johnson expressed this idea well as he said, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”  When we consider the brevity of our lives it can help us to determine a proper sense of priorities.  Bill Keane wisely observed, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, that’s why we call it the present“.  Are you viewing today as a present?

Perhaps our calendars should come with this admonition, “Warning:  Dates in Calendar are closer than they appear.”  Do you realize the ephemeral nature of your earthly existence?  Many of the great authors expressed this truth:

Every second is of infinite value.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

May you live all the days of your life.  ~Jonathan Swift

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.  ~Henry David Thoreau

We are always getting ready to live but never living.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

How did it get so late so soon?
It’s night before it’s afternoon.
December is here before it’s June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon? ~Dr. Seuss

Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am.  Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; surely every man at his best is a mere breath. ~David – Psalm 39:4-5

Even the Righteous Brothers viewed life as a brief part of our overall existence, “If you believe in forever, then life is just a one-night stand.”  The Apostles Paul gives us a proper perspective in Romans 8:18,

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

You don’t always get to choose how you’re going to die, but you can decide how you’re going to live. Moses gives us a helpful perspective in Psalm 90:12,

So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

So here’s a question for you.  If you were going to die soon and had only one person to talk to, who is that person and what would you say?  . . . Why are you waiting?

Rick Higgins

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

Follow me on twitter:  rickhiggins5