a lungful of air

Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you. (Psalm 63:3)

I ran into a good friend last night before work that I haven't been able to talk with for a while. It was really pleasant to quickly catch up on each others lives and what's been going on. It was over faster than I wished, but that's the theme of my song tonight. During the conversation we somehow got onto the topic of the brevity of life, well, this life. Working at a hospital on floors with a primarily older patient population lends to a special insight on life. We're getting old. We all get old. At 22, I half-genuinely joke about feeling the effects of aging. My ankles seemingly have small explosions each morning, my ears are starting to grow prepubescent beards, and people now call at 9:00 p.m. and ask, "Did I wake you?" At the hospital I see more moons than the Hubble Telescope, but I'm beginning to put together the clues. Old rumps may they be, these clues lead to the realization that these vessels in which we dwell, and the time that we spend in them is but a breath (Job 7:7).

"You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (James 4:14). That is, I must keep in mind that I have no firm substance on this earth. I am as fragile as mist and vapor. I must keep in mind that I have no durability on this earth, for I appear "for a little time" - just a little time. My time is short. Your time is short. And keep in mind that you will disappear. You and I will be gone, and life will go on without us. It matters, James says, that we keep this view of life in mind.

God means for the truth about himself and about life to be known and felt and spoken as part of our reason for being. Gazing at life from that angle spurs me to move with haste. It causes me to laugh at entertaining ideas of loitering on my heavenly expedition. Oh, that my life would be a vivid, powerful testimony to the truth that God can and does use weak men to accomplish amazing things for his glory.

The call of the gospel is to a life that counts. God is the initiator of his mission to redeem, through the Church, a special people for Himself from all of the peoples of the world. He sent His Son for this purpose and He sends the Church into the world with the message of the gospel for the same purpose. As the psalm I started with expresses, creation exists that we may live in such a way that affirms that Jesus is more precious than life. More precious than life. Jesus, help me to make that a reality, that others would see that you are the most valuable thing in my life. Help me to sacrifice myself for the good of others so that it is unquestionably apparent that my treasure is not on this earth. Let me not be a carbon copy of the world.

God governs my life - its length and its achievement. I don't have a say in when I go, but I will be obedient to his commission. I'm only misty for a little time. Time to move my feet.