If there is but one thing that humans need to hear over and over; it is this, Life is short. Life lived in the light of knowing the brevity of life is totally unlike from living a carefree life. A carefree life is never worth living. It was Socrates who said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Life is short and it should be expended in and for the right reasons. A life wasted in worldly petty affairs in the absence of knowing and living for eternity will only end up in total loss of both body and soul. The strivings of men in this worldmoves in the direction of physical materialistic world. The balancing of true spiritual strivings is found wanting. Hence, loneliness and despair seems to be jotted in many dairy of life. But this should not be! For some, life is long and lonely but the fact of the matter is life is too short to be living lonely. Having a positive attitude in living the short-given life by God will propel humans to achieve greater feats for kingdom’s purpose and expansion.
The Holy Book has immense examples to point out the shortness of life. It looks as if God wants humans to grasp the fact that life is temporary and one need to live life in that perspective. For instance in the book of Isaiah 40:6-7, God spoke to Isaiah through a voice saying, “Cry out.” And Isaiah replied, “What shall I cry?” The reply was staggering. It says, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass.” Here in this conversation between God and the prophet, the voice is pleading Isaiah to cry out in letting the people understand that they are only flowers that blooms today and tomorrow is no more. God was trying to reach out to his people in communicating that life is too short to be wasted, playing games. The wise live their lives calculating their days and years but fools do not.
One needs to invest time in the fruitful labour of mastering one’s own profession and not dabbling around with bunch of important yet unfruitful undertakings. Too many humans have failed to understand that life is a lease prearranged in our account. Either we waste it or invest it for a meaningful purpose. Nothing ever belonged to us. Naked we come from our mother’s womb, naked we depart.Time can never be bought with money or effort. Life can only be lived once. There are no promises of reincarnation or rebirth that we will live again. The only certainty that we possess is the life “Now” and we ought to use the best of it now.
Riches, fame and beauty flies away like a bird. It doesn’t stay forever. The accumulation of all that’s in the world will rot in rust. Wise and godly earning will last for posterity. But ill-gotten gains will be snatched away in the twinkling of an eye. The feasting, laughter and merriment will soon end in gloom and tears. A pauper with godly fear will be remembered for a long time but a wealthy spendthrift fellow will be buried without a single sorrow or tear. The life lived in the assurance and hope in the Lord will suffer no grief but confidence in possession and wealth will go through immense pain and hardships.
Many people merely exist. They act robotically to the pressing situations around them. The automaton of living life without taking control over circumstances is what defines most of people. The uncertainty of life has made people think that life is meaningless and insignificant. Dying at one’s own hand has been the fate of many but life has much more to offer. In the mixed bag of pain, suffering, loss, separation, joys, happiness and contentment, life gives a taste of all the bitterness and the sweetness of the cruel world. Humans need to embrace life with optimism and true faith that God is sovereign over every unexplainable mysterious ways of workings in this universe.
Humans cannot regret that life is too short. Celebrating the everyday life should be a daily ritual of one’s life. It is not in the years but the quality of life in the years that matters the most. The meaningful existence for short yet fulfilling years comes in the exhaustion of rendering useful service to people around us. Too many people have only lived for themselves and have found it to be too boring and unsatisfying because a selfish life is not what God intended his people to be. The Bible teaches that humans are masterpieces of God created in His own image for good works. The fulfilling life in this short-given time on earth is to live for the One who made us and act in the direction of His written ordinance.
