Imagine you were going to be dead in two years from now. Each minute of your existence eating into the 730 remaining days of your life on this earth. If you knew your life were going to end at that point, do you think you would have behaved differently today.
Would you still have had a lie in? Would you have gone to shop and bought a chicken roll for your mate as well? Would you still have worked on your coursework? Would you still not have worked on your coursework? Would you have played more or less cod? Would you have rung up the girl you’ve never rung up but always wanted to? Would you have prayed more or less? What would you have done differently if you knew time was short?
My cousin-in-law Johnny was a strapping lad just like you lot. Tall, strong, good looking, a great sense of humour and I guess many would have said, with the world at his feet. Not three weeks before his funeral he had been on a beach holiday celebrating his A level
results, looking forward to a fun-packed gap year in South America .
On coming home he fell ill and tragically died a few days later in late August this year. He was 18.
Johnny’s death hit us hard as a family, but it left its mark even beyond the heart wrenching grief of losing a loved one. It gave a profound sense of “Tempus fugit”. “Time flies” or better translated “Time flees”.
2 years is about the average distance in age between you boys and Johnny. It’s possible that one of us here has only 2 years left. And when an end is insight boy does time fly. Think of those dying minutes for Australia v Wales on Saturday. After that last minute try the wallabies must have felt every last slippery second of that match run away as they looked for just three more points before the whistle.
The fact is whether we have 90 minutes, 2, 20 or 80 years left, it makes no difference. At some point in life we will be counting the days, and asking ourselves what we’ve done with what we had.
“Tempus fugit” and That begs the question. What is it that really counts? What are we to do with all these minutes that we have? What constitutes a moment well spent and what’s a moment wasted?
On the rugby field it’s pretty clear what counts. There a few rules that say stuff like if you chuck the inflatable oval thing on the floor and then boot it and it goes through the middle of the great big poles you get three points on your score board, Bottom line - what counts is the score at the end. A good minute is one that adds to the scoreboard.
How about in the game of life? What if anything, is the stuff that really counts? When the final whistle blows what are we left with? What will be forgotten and what will remains?
Is it possible to get it wrong? Like the skills show off in a game of football. You know how annoying it is, you’re out for an intersocial game of footy down the stro, and it turns out you’ve got the guy who’s obsessed with his own skills. Every time he gets the ball, he’s got plenty of options, he could lay it down the left wing, cross it over to the gap on the far side, but it’s head down and off he dribbles. I mean he’s not bad, he manages to shimmy past a couple of defenders but in the end he always holds onto it for too long and you lose possession. It’s just frustrating isn’t it? The point of the game is to score. When you go back to social no one’s going to ask you how were your skills. You don’t get points in football for leg work, it’s balls in the net that count.
How about in the game of life? Is it possible that in some way we live life like the skills show off, missing what counts. It looks good, we’re skilful, the centre of attention, in fact better than many people at a whole load of stuff, hockey, partying, lying, going to church, schmoozing, bantering, philosophising, sacrificing, what ever it is, but we don’t ever get what really counts. So we get to the end of life and the scoreboard is empty.
What is it that counts in life?
Jesus said,
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So there are things that last. There is a final scoreboard, so to speak, and it’s different from what we see and get now.
There are “treasures on earth” stuff that we want that looks good, but doesn’t last. Fortune, Fame, Fashion. Fortune -We can’t take our cash, our car, or our castle with us when we die – even if we give them to our kids, they can’t either. Fame - even the coolest, most popular, most well known amongst us, even if they manage to escape besmirching by the sun will eventually be forgotten, and Fashion? well just like shell bedtime when you get to heaven you have to leave your ipod and your phone in a box at the door and no one really minds whether you have a David Beckham Mohican or not.
On the other hand, said Jesus, there are “treasures in heaven”. Stuff that you or I can do now which lasts for eternity, stuff that ends up on the final scoreboard of our lives, and from which we will benefit eternally. Treasure in heaven is what really counts.
How do I get it? I’m out of time, so perhaps you could take that one on yourself. May I humbly suggest you start your search with this book.
Gentlemen, let me wish you a happy, meaningful, Christmas, where we all learn to fill the elusive time of your lives with things that count.
Finish with Prayer
“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the wolrd, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn men back to dust, for a thousand years in our sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom”
No comments:
Post a Comment