I have been around a bit. You know, lived a few years now, but I wouldn’t say I’m old – probably others would! People can be unkind. But, I’ve seen and experienced quite a bit in my journey from the middle of last century. And one thing that keeps coming to mind a lot these days is this feeling – and it is intensifying for me lately – that life is so fleeting. We’re not here for that long in the overall scheme of things.
James 4:14 (NLT)
“How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”
There it is. And James was not expressing or lamenting some fatalistic philosophical view on life here. No, he is observing that there is an eternity perspective that few people factor into the way they plan their lives. Life is fleeting! How quickly your kids grow up and get married. How quickly the years fly by the older we get. Seasons come and go with alarming swiftness. I am currently ploughing through Paul Ham’s monolithic book on the Vietnam war. I’m up to chapter 37. I grew up during the Vietnam War era and, in page after page of the narration many images long forgotten came back to vivid memory.
I remember when conscription into the army became law – my uncle was conscripted. I remembered the politicians who made very significant decisions about committing troops to Nui Dat, who have long since passed away. I remember reading of the reports of the battles of Long Tan, of Coral and Balmoral (these were the code names used at the time). I remember the Tet offensive when Saigon was almost overrun by Viet Cong insurgents, and National Liberation Front fighters. I remember the horrific story of the My Lai massacre where more than 500 villages were murdered by US troops and the public outrage here in Melbourne. I remember the very public trial of the platoon commander, Lieutenant William Calley – the only one convicted and jailed for the atrocity. It felt like yesterday to me. But it wasn’t.
I remember the massive demonstrations and anti-Vietnam protests in the streets of Melbourne as a teenager. I remember the blatant politicking about the war by most of my secondary school teachers. I remember the newly elected prime minister, Gough Whitlam, announcing on the radio, that all Aussie troops would be brought home by the following June. I remember the joy in the streets over that. So many more memories I thought I had forgotten came alive as I heard the narrative and recalled where I was and what I was doing.
Then it struck me as I looked back. How fleeting all of this was now that I am this far down the track and looking back at it. At the time, though, for my uncle and the conscripted soldiers who were sent to Vietnam, those tours were anything but fleeting. They were interminable and anxious days, weeks and months of danger and loneliness.
When we look back over the years, we can have this sudden sense that life is fleeting. Well, it feels like that now, but it wasn’t at the time; and this strange sense is experienced in these ways because we are a mix of time and eternity. Yep, a weird thought! At one and the same time and place we have experiences of time that seem hard and painful, with no end in sight. Many of these eventually pass, and when we’re up this end of it all, we have that sense of, “Well, that was quick!”. It wasn’t, of course, but in another sense – up this end of it all – it does feel fleeting. King Solomon once wrote:
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
[God] “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Now, I don’t profess to have the perfect interpretation of this wisdom. But I am coming to the conclusion that this eternity thing that God has set in our hearts is experienced every now and then as we look back and have this “life is fleeting” kind of experience. I have this experience often. The question is, “why”? Is it some weird phenomenon we humans randomly experience for no reason? I am beginning to think not. I think the reason we have these experiences is so that we have opportunity to regain perspective in relation to the eternity factor that is set in us, and which calls us to refocus on eternal priorities in the time we have left.
So many people, including Christians live life without much, if any, eternity perspective. Life is fleeting, but few have their eyes and minds properly fixed on the non-temporary, permanent and enduring issues that travel into eternity where they are irrevocably confirmed. The elder, James, when he pointed out how fleeting life is, was really saying, “make the most of today, you’re here such a short time. Don’t blow it!” So, two issues. One make the most of each day. The apostle Paul says the same thing about wasting time …
Ephesians 5:15-16 (NIV)
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
The second is, keep focused on eternity which gives us proper and accurate perspective in the moment. So, how do we do this effectively? Especially when we find ourselves in hard places where feel so stuck and unable to move forward? It is not enough to say, “Well, this will soon pass”, or some such. That doesn’t help much, and it is not always true. So, if life is so, so fleeting how do we make the most of each day, how do we stay focused on that eternity factor that is life and death in the end? Again Paul imparts his wisdom …
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV) “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
First, we don’t lose heart because we are not confined to earthbound realities – and that doesn’t mean we deny them, either. These will end. When we fix our eyes not on what we see in front of us - the circumstances - but what is unseen. And that is how we have hope, and with hope we endure and overcome. We fix our eyes on the eternal – not the temporary which is fleeting and hope allows us to remain steadfast in the moment without succumbing. How exactly?
Hebrews 12:2 (NLT)
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne.”
We fix our eyes on Jesus … because life is fleeting, and we need to live it with the hope of glory which is anchored in eternity.
Think on these things.
Ps Milton