One Life to Live

A six-year-old goes to the hospital with his grandma to visit his grandpa. When they get to the hospital, he runs ahead of his grandma and bursts into his grandpa's room. 

"Grandpa, Grandpa!" he says excitedly, "As soon as Grandma comes into the room, make a noise like a frog!" 

"What?" said his grandpa.

"Make a noise like a frog because Grandma said that as soon as you croak, we're going to Disney World!!!"

Life is short, as they say, and eventually we all "croak." Each of our lives have an expiration date, and whether that be sooner or later, our days are still numbered.

"Only one life, 'twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last," Those words from 19th century missionary C.T. Studd remind us that we only have one life to live and we want to live it in a way that will outlast us in eternity. If this window of opportunity we call life--lived within the confines of time--is going to count for anything, then we would all do well to realize the urgency of dealing with eternal things now while we still have the chance. 

The most basic of those things is settling our eternal destiny, now while we have a chance. The prophet Isaiah reminded us to "seek the Lord, while he may be found." (Is. 55:6). If we go through this life chasing fame and fortune and success, and never use the brief time allotted to us to entrust our lives to God and be reconciled to Him, then we have wasted our one opportunity, and will prove to be the ultimate failure.

And once we know Christ, then our aim is to be the best stewards of the time we have by the choices that we make with the one life we have to live. As someone said, having enough time is never the problem; learning how to prioritize the time we have always is.

So, the challenge is to commit to living for the one who died for you, and establish your priorities accordingly. Then, work to ruthlessly eliminate the time-wasters. Turn off the TV for a while. Log off the computer or video game. Shut down your not-so-smart phone. Get a life again. As John Piper has said, "One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time."

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of your time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17)

I'm praying for you, as I hope you are for me, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

--Pastor Ken