The inexorable passage of time

Pastor’s Corner, Jeremy Harris, First Southern Baptist Church, Liberal

This week is super busy for me.  Have you ever had a week like that?  You look at your schedule and you wonder how to fit the various things on your to-do list into the available hours you have to do them in? So as I sit down to write this article the back of my brain says “hurry up, you don’t have time for this!” 

So, here is a brief consideration of the inexorable passage of time. If you are unfamiliar with the word inexorable, it refers to something that is “impossible to stop or prevent.” When we consider that time passing is inexorable, we consider that it will keep going whether we do or not.  Because this is true, a healthy regard for the passage of time is needed for a person to live in this world with any amount of peace.

A phrase from classic philosophy comes to mind as I consider this concept of time…”Memento Mori.”  Memento mori is a latin phrase that means “remember that you must die.”  Another way of looking at this is found in Psalm 38:4 where David writes  “Lord, make me aware of my end and the number of my days so that I will know how short-lived I am.”  God’s word is pretty clear that the wages of sin is death. It is also clear that each and every one of us have failed to live up to the perfection we were created for. Thus our sin has given us the punishment of death. 

This might sound like really bad news right now.  Why would we want to remember that we must die? Why would David ask God to make him aware of the end of his days?  Because knowledge of that which is inevitable (Something that is going to happen, no matter what), ie… we will all die (unless Jesus comes back first), leads us to consider what we are doing with our lives. We need to “number our days” so that we don’t waste our days. Our days on this earth are limited. Time will continue to pass whether we like it or not.  I will continue to get older until I die.  But, each one of us has a story to tell!  God has a plan and a purpose for each of us.  So, when we remember that one day we must die, it leads us to two questions?

First, what will become of me after I die?  This question has two answers and they are determined by what you do with Jesus.  Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior?  Then after you die, you will join Him in heaven.  Have you rejected Jesus’ gift of forgiveness?  Then after death you will be separated from Him for eternity. 

The second question we must ask as we consider the brevity of life on earth is this: “What is my story?”  One day as you come to the end of your life and look back on it, what is the story you will tell about the life you led?  Was it full of God, family, friends, love, compassion, beauty, etc…? Or will your story be about full calendars, missed opportunities, and frustrated dreams? When we remember that we must die, it helps us to remember to truly live.  So I end today with this…What kind of story are you writing?