"Wasting Life"

As you look back on your life, have you found times you just wasted your time or regretted doing something that took up too much time? As we grow older, those times become clearer in our hearts because we realize the waste of time that will never be regained.

Abraham Lincoln stated, "It is not the years of your life that counts but the life of your years." Moses in writing the 90th Psalm said, "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away." (Psa. 90:10) Life is fleeting but I know I don't have to tell many of you that. Moses says if we live to eighty, life is full of labor and sorrow! That's what we will have to show other than a marker in the graveyard. Too many are frittering here and there, wasting time and their lives, accomplishing nothing! Busy is the word spoken about our lives but what many are busy with is nothing but empty things that never will take one upward to eternity. After things are done, we only find ourselves moving to the next empty day that keeps us busy. I have had many older ones tell me, as they see the grave approaching, the regrets they have for not living the right kind of life, involving themselves in the things that are not really beneficial. In other words, time and life wasted that will never be regained. I can remember in my early thirties thinking about 20 years down the road and telling myself, "Hey, I'll just be fifty!" No real thought about what I was doing. Just existing! Now I think about twenty years down the road and I'll be in my seventies, provided the Lord grants me to live that long and I don't want to waste my time on empty things that are going nowhere.

What if we would live our lives for the Lord? How much better off would we be? "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Eph. 5:15-17) To apply this to our lives in Christ, this will keep the sorrow and labor to a minimum. You will look back in your younger years, knowing that you filled your days with the Lord and His will. You rejoice in your marriage, the relationships that you deem as precious taking full advantage of the time, not wasting life with, "I wish I had said this or done that with them!" A full life! At a recent funeral, a fellow walked up to me with tears streaming down his cheeks and said, "I never got to say goodbye. I never told them how much I loved them. I never thanked them for being there for me. I feel so ashamed." A life of labor and sorrow.

Jesus said to live our lives for the Lord is the best way to live. To seek His kingdom, His righteousness first and foremost will keep our lives full. Moses concluded, "So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." (Psa. 90:12) To waste our lives and time is not wise. To present to God a heart of wisdom, that's a life without regrets. For you young mothers and fathers, I know you think you know this, but your children are growing up and one day you will be left wondering what happened. The times you wasted in frustration at them rather than enjoy teaching, training and helping their souls. May we be able to present to God a heart of wisdom and make the most of our times!