The Big 5-0!

It seems hard to believe but this Saturday, June 18, I turn 50 years old. Now before you get on my case about that not being all that old or for complaining in some way, let me just say, I know there are a lot of people older than 50, I just can’t believe I’m actually there. It seems like just yesterday I was 20. I guess that is the good news, though I’m turning 50, I don’t really feel like it, at least not most of the time.

So why blog about turning 50? No, it is not to get your well wishes, your sympathy, or anything like that. I’m blogging about turning 50 as a matter of perspective. While 50 is not all that old for many people who long ago celebrated that milestone, for me it is significant because my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, and my great-great-grandfather, never lived to see their sixtieth birthdays. Now do you see where I’m going? If genetics have anything to say about it (I know God is in control), I may have less then ten years to live. Now to be honest, while that concerns me at times, what it really does is drive me to a sense of urgency regarding the things of Christ. In Ephesians 5:15-16 the apostle Paul penned these words to the Ephesian church. He wrote, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” What jumps out to me from those verses is the command to make “the best use of the time.” Obviously, regardless of our age or how long we may have left on this earth, it is our obligation to make the best use of time by investing it in the worship and service of our Savior. What Paul is challenging us to do is to make sure that we do not squander our time in frivolous and self-serving endeavors. Since I am keenly aware that my time may be in short supply, I want to make sure that I have lived out my remaining years being both obedient to and effective for Christ.

I wonder, what is your perspective when it comes to time? Over the years I have certainly run into my fair share of believers who are living as if they have all the time in the world to get right with God or to start serving Him. I really hope and pray that that is not your perspective, my friend. In truth, regardless of how much time we think we may have left, time is short. In James 4, James gives this word of warning in verses 13 and 14, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Do you get the picture? Whether 5, 15, 25, 50, or 100, time is short! That being the case, God calls each of us to make the best use of that limited time by living for Him. I wonder, are you doing that? Don’t wait for your next birthday to start gaining God’s perspective when it comes to time. I urge you make the most of all the time you have, by investing your life for Christ. According to I Corinthians 15:58, a life spent laboring for Christ is “not in vain.”