| What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. |
| —James 4:14 |
I used to teach the following folk round to my third and fourth graders:
Man’s life’s a vapor full of woes.
He cuts a caper, down he goes.
Down he, down he, down he, down he,
Down he goes.—Anonymous
Of course, along with the music, I also had to teach some vocabulary—words that they probably had not heard. I always wondered how many of them had ever been faced with the proposition of their own deaths, and how many people that I knew actually gave it much thought.
As I have moved into retirement, I acknowledge that the prospect of death is far too real. The very idea of death fills the minds of most people with a least a little bit of horrible apprehension. The unknown nature of death tends to do that.
As Christians, I would imagine that we have far less apprehension than our non-Christian peers. We know what Jesus has said in His written Word about the fact that He has gone to prepare a place for us. (John 14:2). We also know from His “High Priestly Prayer” that He wants us to live with Him in His glory. (John 17:24). If we have a strong desire to see our Lord in the afterlife, we have a much more healthy view of physical death, especially as it draws near.
I would also imagine that both non-Christians and Christians alike have the same desires to make the most of our lives in the later years. Knowing that the days evaporate before our eyes, we want to do and continue to become that which will count.
Non-Christian people may desire to spend more time with family, or travel, or put their minds to learning new things, or experience completing the items on their “bucket lists.”
However, Christians, beyond all such similar desires, have the foremost desire to allow God to use them and to sanctify them fully, in order to prepare them to live forever in His presence. This gives us a far different set of priorities.
During this COVID-19 pandemic have you felt, like I do, that “time is a-wasting”? We know what we would like to do for God and His church, but we feel that our hands seem tied at every turn.
Let me offer some ideas for ways in which we can still make the most of the days we spend during the pandemic. Though God never tells us how long a particular trial will last—and He certainly has not let us know about the length of this pandemic—He has given us specific ways that He expects us to serve Him. For example:
- How can we find a better time in which to pray for others than during this crisis?
- The written Word of God speaks to us about praying for those in authority, both civically and spiritually.
- The written Word of God speaks to us about loving others and giving generously.
- The written Word of God tells us to study God’s written Word, to meditate and encourage others with that Word.
- The written Word of God speaks often of sharing our faith with the next generation.
- The written Word of God also urges us to remember the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the widows, and the orphans.
Many of these activities may not appeal to our natural sense of accomplishment. But, in God’s eyes, these living acts of sharing God’s grace may hold a much more important place than we would normally give to them in our lives.
Let us remain faithful, doing those tasks nearby, searching and praying for ways in which the Lord would use us in these days. And, let us fervently pray that the Church will rise from this time of forced sleep with an energy that spurns us onward toward a much greater usefulness and power in the days to come.
