13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:13-14 NIV)
Please forgive what some of you may term my "morbidity". I was reminded a little while ago of the fragility of life. It seems that much of my life has been spent trying to build things. Not physical things (don't have the talent my dad had when it comes to building things with my hands) but other things: reputation, credibility, knowledge, expertise, leadership skills, etc....the list could go on. I'm sure you have your list too. At many of these things, I failed. With others I have had a level of "success." As I sit here though, I am reminded of the briefness of life. As has been stated all too well, "Days born of a woman are few and full of trouble." When life ends, there remains none of these things. You may say, "My reputation will live on." Really? How long? How many of us really know what kind of "reputation" our great-great-grandfather had? With each passing year as one generation blends into another, old things are forgotten. No amount of land I own, no amount of wealth that I have accumulated, no amount of education that I have attained, no amount of respect I've gleaned will matter to those who come after me. Of course mine and your loved ones can benefit from those things now but even so, they can also choose to go their own way. Even our old "home place" was once the home place of someone long forgotten. In a matter of years, you and I will become the forgotten. Even those people who have a place in "history" are often far from the real person who lived due to the magnification/diminishing of one characteristic or the other. (I know many of you have practiced the exercise of the 'retelling' of a fact on one side of the room and being passed down in whispers to the other side of the room. By the time it reaches the last person, the 'fact' is much different than it was in the beginning). It won't matter if you have a college degree, a union job, gone to the moon, 100 acres of land, three husbands, five wives, six mules, are an Auburn fan, or a red firebird! NO ONE will remember in a very short period of time.
What does matter then? Solomon, in his lengthy and I might add, more eloquent way, discussed the things I have mentioned above in a book of the Bible called Ecclesiastes. It begins with the discussion of life as a vain endeavor (vapor) and concludes with the wisest man who ever lived stating, "Fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgement, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil." (Ecclesiates 12:13-14) Paul, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, when Jesus' work of redemption was completed told us that "our righteousness is as filthy rags" (Romans 3:10) .... God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)... and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24)
What matters is the acceptance or rejection of a gift. That gift is Jesus and his sacrifice for my sin. Will you accept that gift???
Early in my life I attended a memorial service of someone and at that service I heard something that has repeated itself in my mind many times. One of the speakers at that service said, "I have never seen a funeral coach pulling a U-Haul trailer." On that final "move" we will not be taking any of our belongings or accomplishments with us. Our destination is already fully furnished. What will your furnishings be like? ----Remember it is ALL contingent on your acceptance or rejection of the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Nothing else EVER really remains.
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