Time Passages

In 1978, singer-songwriter Al Stewart had a hit with the song "Time Passages". Part of the lyrics are:

Well I'm not the kind to live in the past.

The years run too short and the days, too fast.

Things that you lean on are things that don't last.

How many of us are leaning on things that don't last, in particular, things of this world. The Bible teaches us that we are to lay up our treasures in heaven and not in this world. But I don't believe that means we are to ignore the things of this world. Obviously we have responsibilities here before we ever get to heaven. We have to lean on our families, our jobs, maybe our kids sometimes, and many other earthly things. But we should not lean too heavily on any of these. Our families may not last, neither may our jobs (especially in today's worsening economy), and as scary as it is to think about, our kids may not last. So what does last? What is something that we can lean on 100% of the time that will never fail us? Jesus Christ!

If you are over the age of 30, you have probably noticed how the years seem to have sped up, especially since the time when you were a teenager. For me, it seemed like the first 20 years of my life dragged on for 50 years, but then the last 20 years flew by like it was only 10! The years may all be passing at the same speed that it always has, but those years do seem to "be running too short." Life is too precious for us to lean on things that we know won't last. I love the expression "you will never see a U-Haul van following a hearse". We work down here on earth so hard to get "things" that we know we can't take with us when we go to heaven. So why do we lean on those things so heavily? Today, perhaps we should do a little soul-searching and take an inventory of the things on which we are leaning. Is Jesus at the very top of our list? If He is not, it may be time to do a little rearranging and prioritizing of our lives. We aren't getting any younger, and Jesus WILL definitely be back in our lifetime, that is, He will either come for us, or we will go to Him when we pass on. Since we don't know when either of these two things will occur, maybe we need to rearrange and prioritize our lives immediately, before the years speed up any faster.

Philippians 3:13-14 says, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Father, please help us to lean totally on You. We know we have to lean on other things in the world too, but remind us that You MUST be first. I pray for Jackie and her kids, and I ask You to bless them with a very good day today. In Jesus name, Amen.