Life Is A Mist

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. - Jm 4:14

Life is a mist. Monday afternoon a co-worker of mine collapsed at her desk. Wednesday she died in surgery.What was a vibrant life on Monday morning is now over. All of her hopes, dreams, plans and aspirations have been cut short. I don't where her true treasure lay. But her death makes it absolutely clear, no amount of success, no amount of ability, no amount of wealth can buy us another minute of life. And nothing in all of creation has any value when we stand before God, the One who owns it all.

As Piper is fond of saying: Only what is done for Christ will last. In this brief, mist-like life, I pray the I can spend more of my few short days working for Christ. If the treasures and the pleasures that are around me won't last and can be taken from me (or me from them) in a heartbeat (literally), I have to ask, are they really worth it? Perhaps instead I should count everything around me and about me as a loss compared to the greatness and the permanence of knowing Christ and being found in him and having a righteousness that is not my own, but depends on faith.

One final thought. Part of Edwards' resolutions emphasizes his desire to see and do things as if they were the last things we would be doing. He saw and needed to remind himself that life is a mist and that mist can lift at any time. I too need to continually be reminded of this reality, perhaps sometimes with the stark truth.

So, I want to close by asking any who may read this to examine your walk with Christ. Perhaps you are not a believer. My friend that is where you must start. Your life is in a very dangerous predicament.Pick up a Bible. Read Romans or John. Probe the claims of Christ in the gospels. Consider the transformed lives in the book of Acts. Ask yourself why such urgency in all the New Testament writers? Place your life, your eternal life, in Jesus' dependable hands.

If you are a believer, I would ask you do a serious, Spirit-invested assessment of your life. Do not be afraid of the hard questions. Do not be afraid of the hard answers. Trust that Christ wants whats best for you and what is best for his Bride, the Church. And, as you do this assessment, praise God for all the good things you find, all the ways Christ is already exalted in your life. But commit to him the shortcomings and the areas that need attention. Work these things out, because it is God who works in us, to will and to work according to His good purpose. And do what you can today, because life is a mist and tomorrow may be in eternity.

To God Alone be the Glory