This Short Life

coffee

I’ll admit it. I used to drink lots of instant coffee. These days I just can’t bring myself to throw some powder into a mug of hot water and call it coffee.

Some would say that makes me a coffee snob but really, life is too short to drink bad coffee.

I’ve seen a number of statements in recent years about life being too short. Life’s too short to worry about what other people think. Life’s too short to remove the USB safely. Life’s too short to be anything but happy. Life’s too short to wait. Life’s too short to wake up with regrets.

I would agree with some of those statements more than others but the interesting thing is that many of them are about life being too short to bother with stuff that doesn’t maximise our own life experience. In light of eternity, this life is incredibly short but surely this short life is about more than squeezing the most out of the years we’re given purely for our own benefit.

I’d like to add a couple of statements to the list.

Life’s too short to withhold kindness from others.

Whether it’s just giving away a smile or giving a large part of our lives to help others, focusing on those other than ourselves should be a priority during our short time on this planet. Put kindness on your bucket list.

We can find a million reasons to withhold kindness from other people but life is richer when we share something of ourselves with no expectation of return.

It doesn’t matter who we are, we all face struggles throughout life that remain unseen by most people. When we withhold kindness due to the way a person acts or the attitudes they display we may very well be withholding kindness from the person who needs it far more than those who are ‘nice’ to us.

Life’s too short to hold grudges.

When I encounter people who have cut others out of their lives over petty issues it makes my head spin. I know that we sometimes need to retreat from certain people, sometimes for a season, sometimes forever, but the stubborn refusal to forgive damages everyone concerned.

Forgiveness isn’t just a quick case of ‘forgive and forget’, it’s a process, sometimes a very long process, but if we refuse to undertake that process we remain slaves to the hurt.

Life’s too short not to consider the bigger questions.

The older you get, the more you realise that life is short. Very short. These days I look back at the decades and it feels as if I’ve only just got started on this journey of life, yet I know that unless I discover the fountain of youth, I’m more than half way through my time here.

While I hope that I’ve still got a good number of years ahead of me I really can’t be certain of when this fabulous journey will come to an end.

So what happens then? What happens after this life? If this life is so short and eternity is so long I need to discover whether this is all there is. Life’s too short not to consider the bigger questions.

I’m unashamedly a follower of Jesus so it’s my belief that this life is just a short, shabby lead in to a glorious future. You may think I’m wrong but have you actually taken the time to fully explore the possibilities?

If this eternity thing is real, and I fully believe it is, you owe it to yourself to check out the evidence yourself. Don’t rely on what others are saying or what you think faith is about. Investigate the evidence and be open to discover something that could change your thinking and your life.

Life, at least on this earth, is short. Eternity is forever.



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Under Construction

cranes

I’ve just been reading the latest post at CycleGuy’s Spin. It’s titled Never-Ending and it talks about the never ending construction job that is our lives.

It reminded me of a post I wrote back in 2004 about growing up and seeing cranes across the city skyline.

When I saw huge cranes constructing huge buildings I used to think how untidy they made the city look. I used to look forward to the day when the city would be finished so that the cranes would be gone. I wanted my beautiful city to look neat and complete.

As I grew older I realised that there would always be cranes. Old buildings pass their usefulness and are replaced by new buildings. The population grows and new facilities are needed. It’s all a necessary part of progress.

I think a lot of us feel the same way about the struggles in our lives. We look ahead to the time when all the cranes will be gone, when the construction will be finished and we can enjoy a ‘neat’ existence. It’s not going to happen this side of eternity.

In every area of our lives we need to realise that the struggles and disappointments will always be there – they’re part of our progress. If we ‘put our lives on hold’ until the struggles are sorted, we’ll never learn to live.

Living is all about what we do with those setbacks, how we cope with them, and more importantly, who we turn to to help us through.

Of course there is coming a time when the cranes will be taken away and the construction will be over. For those of us who follow Jesus and take his promises seriously, a time is coming when the building will be all done and we’ll have an eternity to enjoy paradise. I’m looking forward to resting from all the building.



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