I walked into a conversation yesterday, and during the conversation my co-workers spoke of life, and how long they expected to live.  I told them life is brief and recalled a sermon I heard about the length of life.  I have used the illustration many times, but they had not heard it.  I asked them to imagine a line, and one inch is their life, 70 perhaps 80 or so years.  I asked them to imagine eternity and stretch the line out.  It is never ending.  Infinity.

“On a long enough timeline, everyone’s survival rate drops to zero.”      ~ Palahniuk

“The days of our years are threescore and ten;  and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”     Psalm 90:10

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”      James 4:14

“As for man, his days are as grass:  as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.  For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;  and the place thereof shall know it no more.”    Psalm 103:15-16

“Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die;  and he charged Solomon his son, saying,  I go the way of all the earth:  be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;  And keep the charge of the Lord thy God, so walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:  That the Lord may continue His Work which He spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before Me in Truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said He) a man on the throne of Israel.”    I Kings 2:1-4

I continued saying it was a sobering thought when one stopped to think about it.  We want to distance ourselves from death, but we can’t.  The moment we are born we start to die.  The dash between our birth and our death is crucial.  How will we spend our dash?  I asked them to think back on their lives, the years, and how quickly they pass.  One minute it’s your future and the next it’s your past.  Logically they know the truth, but their hearts want to deceive them that there is still time.

“This, whatever you’re doing now, may be your last act on earth.  It may very well be your last battle.  There is no power which would guarantee that you are going to live one more minute.”    ~ Unknown

One man thought about what I said and  said, “Eileen, my life is almost over . . .”  I did not respond, but allowed the teaching to sink in.  They went on about how many years they believed they had.  They continued to place death in the future. . . they didn’t want to think about their own death.

“For everyone nowadays knows, absolutely is CERTAIN, that nothing bad will ever happen to ME.  Others die, I go on.  There are not consequences and no responsibilities.  Except that there ARE.  But let’s not talk about them, eh?  By the time the consequences catch up to you, it’s too late, isn’t it?”       ~ Bradbury

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;  that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
II Corinthians 5:10

The conversation ended.  A poignant moment.  The reaction surprising.  For a brief moment, they came face to face with their own mortality.  I could read it in their eyes.

“But however fleeting and changeable life may appear to be on the surface, we know that the great underlying values of life are always the same; no different today than they were a thousand years ago.”        ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

Eileen Light