AIN’T IT FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY?

Some of you may recognize that the title of this article was used in an old Willie Nelson song (although I didn’t know who wrote it until I just Googled it). Though I didn’t know Willie wrote both the music and the lyrics to the song, I do remember that the day Elvis died, the nightly news showed a video clip of him (Elvis) singing it during one of his shows in Las Vegas. Now anytime I hear that song, I can’t help but thinking how fitting that title is for every one of our lives.
Three thousand years before Willie was ever born, King David—under the Spirit’s inspiration—offered up this prayer about his own mortality: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in You.” (Psalm 39:4-7).
The older I get, the more I realize how important each day is and how I must use every day for those things that are of eternal value. One man wisely said: “Each new day is God’s gift to me, then what I do with that day is my gift to God.” I must admit, however, that in my case I have wasted many hours that have turned into many days that have turned into many weeks that have turned into many months and that, have sadly, turned into many years. Therefore, I’ve determined to focus on just two essentials that, by God’s grace, I would strive to achieve with each passing day:
First, I want to grow to love God more purely and more passionately with each new day. After all the greatest command is to love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mk.12:30). An ever increasing love for God must be my highest priority. This demands spending time with Him and listening for His voice so that I might quickly obey His commands and follow the promptings of His Spirit. But if at the end of the day I discover that loving and obeying God was pushed behind other pursuits, passions or pleasures, then I’ve not given back to God the gift that He most longs for—a more intimate relationship with me. Knowing God and discovering His will is always the by-product of this God-centered love.
Second, I want to then express that love for God to those He’s placed in my world. It is the second greatest command—to love my neighbor as myself—that makes this the next highest priority of my life. If in every day that God gives to me, I can touch just one person with His love, then this will be my gift that I offer back to God. Touching others with His love could come in the way of a prayer, an encouraging word, a helping hand, a testimony or a simple presentation of the Gospel. My part is to be available to however God would chose to use me.
If you haven’t yet come to realize how time slips away then might I suggest you make David’s prayer your own petition, for that’s why the Holy Spirit had it placed within the pages of Scripture: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.”

Remembering Always: “Each new day is God’s gift to me, then what I do with that day is my gift to God.”

John