"Our Salvation is nearer now than we first believed." (Romans 13:11 NIV)
I’ve often heard this text in terms of rapture and appropriately so. It’s nestled in verses about the late hour and our limited opportunity to identify with Savior. Fiery preaching presents the end as imminent: “If Christ returned today, are you ready? What might He catch you doing?” A whole generation of pentecostal kids grew up in quaking fear of the trumpet sound.
With a few more miles on my tires, this scripture speaks a whole new cautionary tale. Maybe it’s Ferris Bueller’s influence, but all I can hear is “Life moves pretty fast.” We tick off the days and our end comes quickly. In my experience, I get older and speeds up. An hour seemed like an eternity as a five year old, but the blink of an eye as an adult.
What’s more, we don’t know the day nor the hour. Of course, this is true of Christ’s return, but it is equally true of our own demise. We may expire in a retirement home decades from now or in a car accident tomorrow. I recently lost a friend; forty-two years old. She passed away in her sleep, leaving four kids and a grieving husband behind. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. And wouldn’t it be terrible to take last breath, look back and realize we were living for the wrong thing?
For me, in my mid-forties, this verse is becoming a personal reminder to live on purpose. Life is too short to waste days or weeks on stuff that doesn’t matter in the stark light of eternity. Our brief existence requires absolute focus, and I know I need God’s help every step of the way.
Being a church attender is not enough to keep us on task. A weekly worship service – no matter how wonderful the gathering – will never exceed the impact of every day devotional growth. It’s a matter of simple math. An hour or two a week cannot compete with daily diligence. A set aside time of scripture reading and prayerful reflection makes a huge difference in our spiritual growth. Weekly worship + daily devotional results in the exponential growth we require over decades.
A simple graph I sketched in my journal; daily does more than weekly.
This past week my Upper Zoom group sat in Genesis 5 together. It struck us; how everyone who walked the face of the earth in chapter 5 died. They each had hundreds of years, but they all met the same fate. With the singular exception of Enoch: Enoch walked faithfully with God and “was no more, because God took him away.” (Genesis 5:24) I found an epic foreshadowing for humanity illustrated in the life of Enoch. Every human being dies at some point or another. But those who walk with God will wake up on the other side of death and go on to live forever. Enoch was favored because he walked with God faithfully. Our choice to walk with God now affects our destination after death.
A photo from my morning walk with God today. <3
"Show me, Lord, my life's end and number my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. (Psalm 39:4 NIV)
Lord, please forgive us for losing focus. We so easily get wrapped up in things that don’t matter smidge. Time slips away and we live off purpose. Show us today, the limited nature of our earthly engagement. Teach us to walk with You Meet us amidst our devotional time and tug our hearts toward Your priorities. Don’t let us waste our lives on lesser pursuits. Amen.