Our Frail Tenure

"Let us recollect the frail tenure upon which we hold our temporal mercies." C.H. Spurgeon

"What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." Jm 4:14

There are some cliches (good cliches, mind you) about the shortness of our lives, the importance of making use of every opportunity and our complete dependence on God. "Don't waste your life" "Redeem the times" "Treat every day like its your last" There is nothing wrong with these thoughts and phrases. Each has their place and their purpose.

But my question is do we really believe it? Do we really believe our life is a mist and that we could easily be blown away by wind? Do we really believe that our true joy is not bound up in this life but is bound up with life with Christ? Do we really believe that not only is our life short, so is our neighbor's and are our friends'?

I'm asking these somewhat provocative questions because they are personally pressing on me. Would I be focusing on the same ministries if I had terminal cancer? Would I conduct myself the same way at work if I knew that my life would end next week? How would my teaching change? How would my loving change? How would my compassion change? How would my heart for God and for man change?

Unfortunately, there is no good answer, save one, at least for me. I need to work toward a heart and attitude like Paul had as he wrote Philippians. "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ "

But I hear me carefully. It is so easy to read words, even hard words, acknowledge them, swallow hard, commit to do better and move on. I do not want that to be the case for me. I am asking God to make these words stick. Allow these thoughts to penetrate below the hard packed surface and down into the soil of my heart. And, when the day (maybe its today) comes, I pray this can be said in honesty: "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."

To God Alone be the Glory