What are we doing?
On a day-to-day basis, hour by hour, what are we thinking about? The bills, the lawn, the fence, the never-ending projects, the demanding clients, the persistent problems?
But what’s critical? What’s important? Sure, these things mean something – we have to be concerned about them – but what’s really important? Not what’s urgent or in our way or in our face. What’s truly important?
Here’s the harsh truth: We all die in the end. It’s the ultimate spoiler for the story of life. There’s no escape, no secret path, no hidden twist that lets us bypass the inevitable. Each of our deaths is coming, and when it arrives, it’s final.
When? Tonight? Tomorrow? In 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? – God knows. Who promised us tomorrow? Who promised you next week, next month or the next 30 years?
It’s time.
No, it’s so far past time to grab hold of what’s truly important: Your spouse. Your children. Your faith. In the end, these are what matter, and it’s now, not then, that we need to turn our focus and energies to them, and invest everything we have.
Before we know it, long before we’re prepared, we will be on our own deathbeds, days, hours, or minutes before the end.
I’m 58. I know I don’t have 50 years left. I doubt I have 40. So, in less than 40 years, if all works out perfectly, I die. So what am I doing? Forty years isn’t a lifetime; it’s part of a lifetime.
How will I spend it? How will I live it?
Each of us should spend a few minutes every morning considering the end. Not morbidly, not in despair, but in truth and in reality. Take at least a minute or two to consider that we all die in the end. Then, ask yourself: What will I do today that’s different from yesterday? What will I do today if it turns out to be my last?
Because one day, it will be.