When Will You Die? Run The Race Blog #3

Thursday, Written July 24, 2008 BLOG #3
When will you die? Run the Race Part 1
Current mood: rejuvenated
Category: Life

How many days until you die?

At church on Sunday Pastor Steve (www.creeksidemac.com) preached about time and time management from a Biblical perspective. So I am going to share some of my thoughts about what I learned.
Life is Short. I understand this profoundly. Life ought not be taken for granted, or wasted away on frivolous things, there just is not enough time to be wasting it away. In an article published by medicalnewstoday.com the average life expectancy for a person living in the USA is 77.6 years. That makes 28,091.2 days. This means that if I am lucky enough to live to the average age, I have about 14,697 days left. You can do the math for yourself to determine where you are at. As of 2006 populationeducation.org lists an average of 106.7 deaths per minute worldwide, with a total number of deaths per year worldwide at 56,595,880. That is over 56 million a year. It is appointed once to a man to live and once to die. Ashes to ashes dust to dust. We will all perish.

Death is in the news everyday. Very rarely is LIFE in the news. Good news is just not news. Children are dieing, people are dieing. Soldiers are dieing for our country this very day. One of my best friends Min, had a daughter, her name is Nadia. She was blossoming into a young woman. She was radiant, beautiful, and had taken to following Jesus. At the young age of 15 she walked to her bus stop on a cold and foggy day. As she crossed the dark street she was hit by an elderly driver and died. Nadia was at home only moments before. She was here then gone in an instant. I had another close friend. John Hinshaw. He was a gifted person. He had the gift of music, math, and many other talents. He came to such a point of depression that he hung himself over a girl. The girl moved on with her life. The girlfriend he had pays little attention to the fact that John died over her. It was a waste. He died to make a point and no one took the point. Now he sits behind a gravestone, and our lives have all moved on. My own sister had a daughter Marissa. My sister took Heroin with her boyfriend and went to sleep with Marissa in the bed with them, only to wake in the morning to find Marissa dead from suffocation as they had laid over her in their Heroin induced comatose state. Life is short, and even unfairly short. We have a choice in how we live our lives. We have to make those choices everyday. We have a choice to Live, and live a life that is full of purpose.


This life truly is but a very small blip on the radar of eternity. It means everything yet means nothing at all.

Psalm 90 (NIV)

12 Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 39 (NIV)

4 "Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

Life is fleeting at best. I spend the majority of my life at work. I count the minutes until my next break. I can, at any given time tell you how long it is until I get to go home, most times right down to the minute. I am obsessed with time. I am so concerned that I will not get enough time to do the things that I want to do. I need my time to relax, I need my time to make music, I need my time to do nothing and be nothing. I am obsessed with time. I segment my time almost to the last minute and in spite of that I waste it on the things that don't matter. I am learning that I ought spend my time on the things that God would have me do, thus not wasting it away. Even our work time can be devoted to our Heavenly creator, devoted to Jesus.



Ecclesiastes 2 (amplified Bible)

24There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and make himself enjoy good in his labor. Even this, I have seen, is from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat or who can have enjoyment any more than I can--[b]apart from Him ? 26 For to the person who pleases Him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and heaping up, that he may give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it.

Luke 12:20(amplified Bible)

20But God said to him, You fool! This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be?

Will what I have prepared (worked for and spent my time on) be for God for eternal Glory, or will I have nothing to show for this life?

Many of us find ourselves in Jobs that we don't like. I know that I wish for more and better all the time. I have to take the time to be thankful for what I have. Even for my Job. I have found that the best way for me to deal with work is to realize that my true employer is not the company that I work for but God himself. "do all things as unto the Lord" the Bible says. I find that the Time spent at work can be dedicated to my Heavenly Father. Life is to short to be spending my time wasting it away on the negative thoughts about this earthly life. "Set your mind on things above". I pray for my customers. Silently I pray for them in my mind. I help them doing my best as unto the Lord.

"It is appointed once to a man to die" How many days do I have left? Am I wasting them away on the things of the World? What is it that I spend my discretionary time on? These are the things that I ask myself. Am I wasting it all away or living for the kingdom? We have been given enough of Gods Grace for today. The outcome of the race has already been determined. We, as Christians will win, yet we must run the race, fight the good fight, and stay on the path. This earthly life may just be a practice, or test for our heavenly eternity. God let me make use of my every moment for your Glory. This moment is the only moment I have.


Again here are some resources for you, resources that I use all the time.

www.calvarychapel.com for a church near you and you will find TONS of sermons by many great pastors.

http://www.pastorronsmith.org/ for sermons from my Dad (yeah I am a Pastors Kid). Available as Podcast as well.

http://www.biblegateway.com/ for bible reading, verse of the day, or even stream (listen to) the Audio Bible. I love this site.

http://www.creeksidemac.com/ my other current pastor is from this church. You will find his sermons under the Resources tab.

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Hugs, Love, and Peace-- By Grace In Him---

sMitty ----- Solution7