Events from the past couple of years have caused me to consider, once again, what it means to live intentionally and with the brevity of life in mind whilst also maintaining a sense of being present.
As the mother of a 10-month-old and as the granddaughter whose Mimi went to Heaven last year at 93 years old, lately, I’ve felt a bit like I’m looking through a collapsible telescope to see the near and wide pictures of life.
I see the near picture of my son’s life, just beginning. That helps me see intricate, wondrous details with which we are made.
I see the wide picture of generations fading out into eternity. That helps me see how quickly a human’s life vaporizes from this life to the everlasting, even when many pages have been torn off a person’s calendar. The last sibling of any of my grandparents just breathed his last, making my parents’ generation the oldest with my generation next in line.
I find myself somewhere in the middle of this telescopic view of life, determined not to waste my life but equally challenged not to be so driven that it flies by without a deep inhaling of the gift that is.
I know 15, 30, 60, and 90-year-olds who have the perspective that they have plenty of time to get their acts together.
I know 15, 30, 60, and 90-year-olds who know that given all the hours from the start of creation to the end of the earth that they would never be able to get their acts together on their own.
The difference between the first and second groups of people who’ve been given parallel breaths is the decision to live for the immediate versus the decision to live with eternity in mind.
God created every person with a great purpose in mind. To see that great purpose unfold in one’s life, care must be given for both the small and the large assignments. Those assignments are as unique as the fingerprints we each carry and as common as the air we breathe.
If you consider a person’s life in the terms of a one hundred dollar bill at best, that means each year represents just a dollar. It’s rare that humans cash in on 100 full years, though. The average lifespan of an American is around 79 years, leaving them $21 less in a lifetime than a 100-year-old. That creates a tighter budget for the average person to manage, wouldn’t you say?
For the average person, each year’s value is represented in cents, not a full dollar. Yet, friend, the pocket change of your life’s currency adds up. It’s yours to invest. How are you going to literally spend the treasure you’ve been trusted to multiply?
The Psalmist summarizes these thoughts best: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (90:12).
Like my Granddaddy used to say, “Life is short, even at its longest.”
[easy-tweet tweet=”When you view your life through the telescope of eternity, what are you seeing up close and what are you seeing in the distance?” user=”@JaymeHull ” hashtags=”#telescope #life”]When you adjust that lens to where you are right now, how are you investing your time to spend the loose change of your year, which adds up to the sum of all your days?
Choose how you invest your time wisely, friend. Be present, be intentional, and be aware of the gift that God of life has trusted you with to spend with purpose.
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