Proverbs 16:9 NIV
“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”
“48:29:34, 48:29:35, 48:29:36″…I sat in my car, watching the seconds tick by on my dash panel, indicating to me how much time had gone by since I last reset my odometer. I kept thinking to myself, “Have I really spent almost 50 hours in my car?” My mind then began to drift off into ideas of what else I could have done with those 50 hours besides drive back and forth from work and wonder why so many people on the road seem to be out of blinker fluid.
As I tend to do, I then began to draw parallels between the “what seems to be” and “life as a whole”. What are you doing with your time? Are you making a difference in people’s lives? Is that difference a good difference? One that is
furthering the Kingdom of God? All of these questions began to flood my mind as the seconds on my dash panel droned unceasingly on. I suddenly came back to reality, shifted my car into drive, and pulled away from work. I felt a little nudge, more of a loving reminder, that was telling me that the grains of sand have already been counted out, locked away in my hourglass of life, and are known and kept safe by my loving Creator, and by my loving Creator alone.
I think any person in their right mind would live their life differently if they knew how many years, days, and minutes they had left on this earth. However, we as Christians need to see things differently. We need to back into these types of questions from the perspective that our eternity has already begun and how we are using this knowledge to truly invest our time, our love, and the message of Christ into those we come into contact with every day. When I really think about it, even if given the chance, I wouldn’t want to know how much time I have left here on earth. Why?
Because I don’t want my conduct to be driven by a selfish human heart that is confined by the temporal things of this world. I want to be broken, molded, and transformed by the One who knows me and loves me the most. The One who knows what is best for me, even if I think I have it all figured out.
With prayer and love,
Justin