We Aren’t Going to Live Here Forever

Many were saddened to hear about the death of popular celebrity Betty White. As you probably know, she passed away just a few weeks prior to her hundredth birthday. There had been big plans to celebrate her reaching that milestone. Maybe some of those events will be transformed into memorial tributes instead. As I spoke to someone shortly after finding out about her death, this person asked me if I knew what she had died of. Although I knew she was asking about the official cause, I jokingly suggested that it was probably old age. In one sense, it shouldn’t surprise us when someone at ninety-nine years of age dies. Yet I heard another entertainer express shock at this occurrence. She said she had thought Betty White would live forever. Undoubtedly, she didn’t believe that to be literally true. However, it reveals how we sometimes take life for granted and lose sight of the inevitability of death, whether for ourselves or someone else.

     In Psalm 90 it refers to how quickly life passes by. It suggests that a thousand years in God’s sight is like one day. It pictures time sweeping by like a fast-moving flooded river. It compares the years of our lives to grass – “In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withers” (v. 6). This psalm suggests that we do well to see seventy years, and are blessed to experience the strength to reach our eighties. However, the most familiar portion of this passage is probably the twelfth verse: “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

There is wisdom in keeping a proper perspective concerning the length of our time here on this earth. It’s foolish of us to ignore the fact of our mortality or to act like we’re going to live here forever. There is great value in realizing that we just have a short time to accomplish what we’re going to do in our lifespan. Additionally, it is wise to prepare for what awaits us once this life is over. While we don’t live in this flesh on this earth forever, we need to come to terms with the truth that we will continue to exist in one condition or another. We will live forever, either in the glorious presence of God or in a tragic state of separation from Him while facing the consequences of our sin.

As we continue in the opening days of a new year, it can be a good time to regain such a perspective about life if we’ve strayed away from it. We think about people we knew who were here as last year began, but who were not still present by the time the year drew to a close. We don’t know how many of us will still be living the next time the calendar is turned. We don’t have to be in our nineties, or even our eighties or seventies, to realize that we don’t have a lot of time left. No matter how old we are, life is short and any of us could find ourselves face-to-face with our Creator at any time. None of us are promised tomorrow, much less another year.

I’m not suggesting that we become fixated with dying. We’ve got too much living to do. However, in order to live well, we need to stay aware of our limited time and make preparations for the life hereafter. Don’t take your life or the lives of those around you for granted. Whether we live to be as old as Betty White or die tomorrow, let’s live wisely.