” Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city,
spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.
For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
~ James 4:13-15
I have had a lot to reflect on since this year began but particularly in the last 2 months and it has drawn me to the conclusion that there is a need to live life, fully understanding that it is a vapour that vanishes away and not to be lived simply for living sake.
Quite a number of people, walk through this earth understanding what living in the real sense is all about. Living for some is simply about the quest to fufill their dreams, and life goals while for some others, it is all about understanding the reason for which the Giver of life graced them with this precious gift called “life”.
While for some, life is believed to be such that gives them enough time to go about not bothering themselves to discover or pay attention to why they are living , for some others, there is an understanding of the fact that this thing called life is linked to time and this time in question cannot be wasted considering that we have no control over it and it is indeed little, before you know it, it’s all gone.
Sadly, time can never be regained, once it’s lost, it’s gone forever just like vapour. It is interesting to see how things sometimes get so bad that we begin to question the Giver of life for taking it whenever it pleases Him, standing on the position that only the old, aged and those we consider bad people should die or stop living here on earth. How I wish this is what applies to life here on earth, sadly this is far from the reality of what life has to offer from one generation to another. Death comes for both the young and old, good and wicked. Although It hurts when we lose our loved ones or people we barely knew but were inspired by their life, this is what life here on earth is- fading, ending, passing, fleeting, unpredictable…
Recently, the sudden death of a beautiful soul touched me so much that it reminded me of the death of my father some years ago. My father was not sick or unhealthy for anyone to have expected to hear about his demise so soon. Life happenings is exactly what happened to my dad who had a cardiac arrest and died almost immediately.
One of the names of our God is “The Unquestionable” but I must confess to you that when some bad things happen, you would have questioned God before remembering He is not to be questioned in a demeaning way by mere mortals whom He created.
When I heard about the death of this amazing woman who I never met in person, it felt so strange that my heart raced so hard I had to remind myself she was not in any way related to me. Neither did she have a direct impact on my life while she lived, yet I could not stop crying so much. As I cried uncontrollably each time the thought of her passing came to my mind, I began to feel how I felt when my dad passed. I felt as though she was closely related to me though she was not. I later realized her life struggles and the story of her waiting for God’s precious gift is one thing I could relate with in her life.
Life gives no one the right to live here on earth for as long they we would have wanted. My take on this is that, there is a need to understand why we are here on this journey, and also that this journey would definitely end someday. The “when” and “how” of our is usually not known to us but there is a certainty of its occurence.
Gone are the days when pilgrims understood that they were simply sojourners and expected to return home whenever their time was up, irrespective of how beautiful, enticing or peaceful the land of sojourn is.
Sadly, we are a generation of people who believe more in the land of pilgrimage so much that we do not bother about where we actually came from, despite the fact that where we came from and where we should return back to is where home truly is. You can decide to embark on a journey to another nation here on earth and fail to return to your home country by making all kinds of excuses, doing shady things to enable you remain in a place you consider “heaven on earth”, but when it comes to eternity which is where everyone of us will eventually end up, there is no way around it. When the time of departure comes, the angels cannot help you deceive God, neither will you be able to sweet talk Jesus into letting you stay back, making excuses that you have a ministry or whatever thing you consider important for you to do for Him and His kingdom. His question to you at that time would be ” What did you do with all the time you had at your disposal before now?”
When time is up, it’s up, there is no way around it. Talking about having no way around it. Eternity is either spent in one of two places (Heaven or Hell/Hades). I understand it is your life, but then, you have no right over it above the One who gave it to you. Tomorrow is known only to the One who alone understands the ending from the beginning and as such only He knows if tomorrow will be or not. If He lets you live, it is important you do the things that are relevant to the reason He lets you live, this way you will be considered a good steward of the precious gift of life given to you.
Just like vapour, life is short. Eternity is however long and should not be overlooked. Let your life here on earth count towards that which is of value to God and His Kingdom, as you look forward to spending eternity with the Sovereign King of all the earth.
#GotJesus?
#ThereIsLifeAfterDeath.
#JesusSaves.
Psalm 144:4, Ephesians 5:15-17, Psalm 39:4, Psalm 78:39, Psalm 89:47
Author Profile
- Temitope is the founder of thesoulmeal.com, an online platform that she shares with her God-given spiritual family and friends. She is a speaker, teacher and youth counselor. She is passionate about inspiring people to find their identity in Christ. Catch her interviewing inspiring leaders on Tongue of the Learned Podcast
Latest Posts
Growing In ChristMay 10, 2021Pay Attention To This Season
FaithJanuary 26, 2021His Word, My Hope.
FaithJanuary 14, 2021Caught In The Web Of The Devil’s Lie?
FaithJanuary 5, 2021Look Beyond The Package