“O Lord, make me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!”
– Psalm 39:4
There is great value in being reminded that our days are limited on this earth! We may not like to contemplate our own death, but its inevitability forces us to reflect on our priorities and how we live our lives. Our typical modern American life is so comfortable that we easily assume it will continue, as is, pretty much forever. But it won’t. This false assumption leads us to live our lives for ourselves, for the moment, and for the trivial. It allows the urgent to dominate the important, because we imagine we’ll get to the important “tomorrow”.
“Tomorrow” is never guaranteed. Our lives are but a brief blink of an eye in the span of eternity. Reminders of mortality remind us that we need to refocus on what truly matters and use this time well. While our earthly lives are brief (at most 70-100 years), we will live forever. That forever (billions and trillion of years worth) will either be spent in God’s presence, enjoy the rewards of a life of faithful service to Him, or separated forever from God in a Christ-less eternity called hell, where we will experience the suffering due a wasted life of rebellion and selfishness.
The difference in our destination is determined not by our own good works, because they’ll never be good enough to climb back into the presence of a perfect God. The difference will be determined entirely by our faith in Jesus Christ, who sacrificed His perfect life to carry us into God’s presence. Once you embrace Christ, you change your forever destination. However, this must increase the urgency of living this brief life well, growing continuously in your relationship with God, and serving and glorifying Him every day. Reminders of death, such as we see all around us now, bless us by focusing our attention on the work God has prepared for us to do rather than our personal bucket list of fun things we want to check off before passing into God’s presence.