The Days Of Our Lives
The days of our lives is an old soap opera. The beginning line is something like this, “As sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives,” and, isn’t that true? We’re going to spend them, but the question is, how are we going to spend them?
That farmer who was very rich because his crops produced so well thought that he would spend his days building more barns for more crops (Lk. 12:16-21). There is no indication the man is dishonest, but he does have misplaced values. In the end he offers himself a compromise-- take ease, eat, drink and be merry. God’s assessment was, “Today your soul will be required of you. Then who will all those crops and barns belong to?” The truth is, if we have lived very long at all, we have built bigger barns. Who among us lives in the house or apartment we lived in when we were first married? Who still drives the car we drove when we first started out? We have all built bigger homes and drive nicer cars. In the beginning our portfolio was zero. But with passing of time it has accumulated. The question is not, is it wrong to build bigger barns, the question is, have they become the meaning of life for us? It’s possible to build bigger barns and keep God as our focal point. Just look at Abraham. We must not take our eyes off of Jesus no matter how big or small our barns are.
Again, Solomon was a man who had it all. There was no restraint from anything he sought or accomplished. He tried wealth but, in the end, asked, “What good does it do to have wealth if in the end we leave it to a fool?” He tried wisdom, but then said the wise and fool die alike. So why choose wisdom? He tried having big parties, but concluded it was better to go to the house of mourning. Solomon’s assessment of life under the sun is that it was all vanity and grasping after the wind. It left him in exasperation. There was no fulfillment. Yet, if not careful, we chase the very same things and, in the end, come to the same conclusion.
Let’s ask Paul, “What should we spend the days of our lives seeking?” He said, “That I many know Christ and the power of His resurrection. Therefore, I press toward the mark for prize of the upward call of God.” Paul set his heart for one thing. He set it all in trying to know and be like Jesus. We never hear Paul offering any regret either.
The fact is, no man who set his heart on God ever comes to the conclusion that he’s wasted a day of his life.
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