Wow. Twenty years old. That’s wild. Mostly because I still feel like I should be sixteen.
Coming out of my teen years makes me realize how fast time goes. I’m sure if you’re more advanced in your years, you’re probably thinking to your self, “Yeah just wait. You’ll blink and you’ll be 40.” I know your right because I blinked and now I’m twenty. Is that all we are? Just blinks in time until the figurative eye closes, never to open again? Maybe we are, and if that’s true, it should motivate us. Seeing how fast twenty years can go makes me think of all the things I want to do before I die. It shows me how valuable time is; to not let it just roll on by but to truly make the best of it. This reminds me of the song by Tim McGraw called “Live Like You Were Dying.” What would I do today if I knew I didn’t have tomorrow?
1. I would play my favorite songs and sing and dance with my best friend in the kitchen.
2. I’d give that $20 bill in my wallet to the homeless man on the street.
3. I’d forgive everyone that ever did me wrong and ask for forgiveness too.
4. I’d make sure that when I didn’t wake up tomorrow I knew where I would be instead.
5. I’d sit in the hot tub and look at the stars with my mom.
6. I would go for a walk to the river with my dog Koda just to sit and listen to the water rush by.
7. I’d go to that special place where the wind softly whistles through the pines and I can hear the Lord’s voice so clear.
8. I’d tell as many people as I could that Jesus loves them and about the freedom they can have.
9. I’d get dressed up with my sister and go out, laughing about anything and everything.
10. And last, I’d make sure I spent as much time telling the people that I love, how much they mean to me.
Sounds like a busy last day right? As much as I enjoy all of these things, I hope I don’t spend my last day doing any of these things. I don’t want to wait around until I don’t have time left and try to scramble to get everything done. I’m making a choice today to do the important things. To never again use the excuse of “well, I have time” or “maybe one day things will be different.” No. Today can be that day. Time is like we’ve already pointed out, just a blink of an eye. I want to spend my last day smiling at all I’ve done with the Lord beside me. I want to have the confidence running in my veins that says I did everything I could do to better this world, the people around me, and myself. I want to go out praising the Lord and know without a shadow of a doubt that the next thing I’ll hear is the Lord saying, “Well done.”
I wasted twenty years doing meaningless things. Guaranteed, we need to experience the meaningless in order to really appreciate the meaningful, but I made a choice to float somewhere in-between the two. “Going where the wind blows” as they say. Floating in time. The river leading to nowhere. But everything changed when I let the Lord in my life. All the sudden things didn’t look as good and the things I had been taking for granted meant incredibly more to me than they did before. I realized it was simple. This life is about loving others and loving the Lord more in the process. As I started to love the Lord more and more, I started to want for my life what he wanted; to make a difference and to spread Jesus’s love to all, even the most unlovable person. That’s my calling. But it doesn’t stop there. I have to make a decision of how well I want to live it out. Faith without action is dead. That is, if you’re not doing something with your calling, your living dead.
Regret is real. We all have it. We often feel regret for the choices we’ve made and maybe the stupid things we did as a teenager. But how much more stupid is it to feel regret for not doing anything at all.
Don’t let twenty more years pass you by before you realize you have nothing of eternal significance. Make an honest list for yourself of all the things you would do on your last day and then do them today instead. Don’t depend on time. You never know how many blinks you have left.
2 Peter 1:10-12 “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Galatians 5:14 “For the entire law in fulfilled in keeping this one command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.””
1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
