The Dash

Either Jesus is coming, or death is coming. That’s a heavy statement, but it’s the reality of each of our lives. We put off thinking about it and distract ourselves from it, but look at what James the brother of Jesus, has to say about the brevity of life: 

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 4:14

Our lifespan is like a mist that appears for a moment and fades the next. 

Our days may come to seventy years,

    or eighty, if our strength endures;

yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,

    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

If only we knew the power of your anger!

    Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.

Teach us to number our days,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:10-12

Teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. What happens when we die should impact what happens while we live. 

Show me, Lord, my life’s end

    and the number of my days;

    let me know how fleeting my life is.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;

    the span of my years is as nothing before you.

Everyone is but a breath,

    even those who seem secure.

Psalm 39:4-5

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.” 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

James 4:13-17

Life is short, but eternity is long; what we do with our lives, with our dash, with our mist echoes in eternity. Our actions do not earn our place in Heaven; only the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus can do that, but our actions do impact what our future in Heaven is like. 

Your circumstances here on Earth don’t determine your standing in Heaven; what does is how you leverage those circumstances for God’s name and renown. So here is the question you should be asking yourself…

What are you doing with your dash?