Ready or Not ...2019

Can you believe another year is in the books? Time marches relentlessly onward without asking for either our consent or approval. 2018 isn’t even cold yet and 2019 is already relentlessly marching for­ward. Nothing you or I do will ever get that time back. With each passing day we creep closer towards time’s end. Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will be passed to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal powers will shrivel to irrelevance. It won’t matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire. The wins and loses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end. It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant. So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured? What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

[John 10:1-17] The year 2019 will bring with it days of defeat and success. 2019 will bring with it both sadness and great joy. 2019 will bring days of suffering bal­anced with days of healing. 2019 will bring with it days of loss and others of enrichment. For some 2019 will bring with it a day of finality. But, as always, with Jesus there is good news, for there will not be a single day in 2019 that you will have to encounter alone! We have One who can lift us up from de­feat, comfort us in sadness and sustain us through suffering. There is One who can truly place momentary loss into eternal perspective. And not to be forgotten, we have each other, charged with the duty of sharing in life’s highs and lows (Romans 12:12-15) and with bearing “one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). While you are powerless to keep time from sifting through your life like sand through your fingers, you can do something about how you spend it. What will matter in how you spend your fleeting moment in time is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your confidence, but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone. What will matter are not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice. Choose to live a life that matters. While much time will fall wasted at the feet of humanity, as a follower of Christ you can use your time to God’s glory and time will ultimately deposit you in His timeless glory. Moses said of the Lord’s commands, “This day I call the heavens and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years...” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a,b). “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).