Early this month I wrote the blog “Life”. In it I said “Let me begin today by saying there is something about life. Life is precious. Just look at a newborn baby. Life is a daily proposition. Just look at what goes on in your life each day. Life is temporary, well that depends on what you have done about a decision regarding Jesus Christ.”
I want to, as I said in a recent video blog, go further in talking about the life perspective. One of the things I see about life is that we seem to struggle with how to live and what to do with our lives. Now that may seem very elementary and it is but there has to be a beginning point and that is what we will use today.
Where are you in your life? As I had said previously that life being precious, a daily proposition and temporary I found myself thinking more about life. We all live life, but it is the consideration about life that is where the rubber hits the road.
There is a reality about how man views life. Scriptures say that in Psalm 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. A score is 20 years so the Psalmist is saying that on the whole we can hope to live a life of 60 years and then maybe 10, which takes us to 70 years. We learn from this text that we are not guaranteed even 3 score and 10.
Life expectancy today for both male and female in the United States is 79.1 years. For females it is 81.7 and males 76.6 so we understand where we are in relation to our age. With this, we can use a football analogy and easily see that up until age 20 we are in the first quarter of our lives then 20-40 in the second quarter, 40-60 in the third quarter and then from 60-70 in the fourth quarter. So you might ask, what if I make to 80 plus? Well, as I heard a friend say recently you are in sudden death overtime.
Now I hope you find this informative because I really want to give you the idea of how important and precious life is. For some, life is a struggle because of health, family even financial matters that cause additional stress. Obviously, the perfect balance is having issues but none that become overbearing on life. You know a little trouble comes into all of our lives. That is a fact and we can and should grow and be strengthened by the events in our lives.
I have always found myself to be focused on doing the best I could and looking ahead. Now for the sake of transparency that was true but probably more focused on looking ahead. There is nothing wrong with that but for some that can certainly get out of hand. They can make the future, which they are not even promised, more important than the present they have now.
If you know me or even anything about me, you know I am in the fourth quarter of my life. As a friend once said “I want to finish well”. For me, that is I want to enjoy the life I have left but I want to make it count for my Lord and Savior. It also means that I love my life in much shorter increments. What I mean by that is that we don’t make plans beyond a few months out. We are not talking about a 5 year plan in our house. We are living our life and if I said it this way I think you will understand. We are living for the day which 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86400 seconds and wanting everyone of them to count.
Do I wish I had gotten this sooner? Of course I do and hope you will too. Now there are so many things happening around us today that can and are causing us great concern. They need to be addressed and I hope for some of you who are younger that you might consider seriously doing something. I told a young mother of school age children to be involved in their education. Even to the point of considering running for the school board in order to be sure that the right values are instilled in the schools of her county.
Frank Sinatra sang that he did it “My way”. The lyrics noted that “Regrets, I have a few but then again too few to mention“. I know I can appreciate that line and agree. I have a few regrets, but as I look back over my life I can say it has been a good one. A wonderful, beautiful and loving wife in Elaine. Two amazing children in Lacey and Erik. Bobby and Amanda are the spouses who are as much our kids and are wonderful. Anthony, Isabella and Emersyn, well as my Dad always said ”if I had known grandkids were so great I would have had them first”. Nothing personal Lacey and Erik.
Now if you are trying to read between the lines, DON’T!!! I am fine, Elaine is fine, the kids and grandkids are fine. God is good all the time and all the time God is good. I am simply reflecting with a life perspective. There are only a few things I have real perspective on and one is my life.
We are living a very peculiar time in our nation’s history. Being a Constitutional republic now for 245 years we need to be steadfast on standing up for what we believe. I am concerned, and I believe rightfully so, that there are those who desire to take away our freedoms. They are diligently working to do so now in many areas. Without a doubt your freedom of religion is on the list. I pray it never happens and so that is why we must all commit to be good citizens. To be active and to vote. This is no time for you or anyone else to say their vote does not count. If you don’t vote it surely will count and then you will need to remember that elections have consequences. Remember when gas was cheaper, there was no supply chain problem, businesses had employees and our nation was respected around the world? Case in point, elections have consequences.
Am I concerned about life? Well, of course I am and you are to, I would imagine. What does tomorrow hold? Only God knows and I plan to live it to the fullest. What about you?
Elbert Nasworthy