A Look Back Series

one calculation said we each have a total of 350 days about which we make decisions.

Our days are numbered. People react to that in different ways -- some of us want to do what an old beer commercial suggested: we try to grab for all the gusto we can in life. We want to live and experience and do and buy and travel and -- just squeeze as much as we can into the days we have.

Another reaction is to passively ignore the truth that life is temporal. Passive people live one day at a time. Take life as it comes. Go with the flow, go with whatever feels right at the moment. They live with no intentionality at all.

That always reminds me of a story from 1 Kings 20. The prophet there used an illustration about a man who was charged to guard a prisoner -- somehow the prisoner escaped. When he was called to account, he told his superior, “while your servant was busy here and there behold he was gone!”

We get busy with this or that thing -- and suddenly, a year is gone, suddenly life itself goes by us. All of a sudden, you’re 55 like me, and you realize that unless you’re going to live until you’re 102, life is more than half over. I said at the beginning, life is largely composed of the small things. The minutes, the hours, the days, the interactions we have with people.

So what are the daily habits that mark your days? What are habits you practice for which you trade in the days of life? Little decisions don’t seem significant. A few dollars here. A little entertainment there. A few comforts. A couple of TV shows. Suddenly, life evaporates, as the Bible says, like your warm breath on a cold night, suddenly we’re not at all where we had wanted to be at this age.

What are your habits? What do you do everyday which helps set out the course of your life? Is Scripture part of your daily regimen? Is time with your Father? Is there time for people who need Christ? Time to invest faithfully and regularly in advancing Christ’s work?

We could each name a half dozen or dozen things we do every day. Take a look at yours and see where the course will take you.

Steps I need to take

The start of the year. A most appropriate time to evaluate.

I don’t want to leave you with guilt this morning. Neither do I want to leave you comfortable.

Will you -- as I said at the start -- will you -- before God, right now, commit to spending at least 60 minutes in the next 7 days to answer openly, before Him, these 3 questions and any others that are associated with them. I’ve raised them; under God, I urge you to answer them. I will as well.

Next time, we’ll take up some biblical priorities to which we can each freely and gratefully and wholeheartedly give some of the time of our lives. But we need first to come to grips with the status quo.