Daily Encouragement: Day 211

From Handbook to Wisdom, Day 211

TIME IS OUR MOST PRECIOUS ASSET

Lord, make me to know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life.
(Psalm 39:4)

Teach me to number my days,
that I may gain a heart of wisdom.
(Psalm 90:12)

Suppose your doctor tells you, after a routine physical examination, that you have a terminal illness. You seek a second and third opinion, and all agree that at best you have one year to live. There will be no discernible effects of the disease until it has reached its course.

How would this scenario affect your vision of life, your roles on this earth, and the way you should invest your remaining time? The degree to which it would alter your present perspective and practice is the distance between your current view of life and the biblical view of life. The latter emphasizes the brevity of our earthly sojourn and stresses the urgency of investing our most precious asset, time, in a way that will have lasting consequences. The former view typically denies the imminence of death and, for all practical purposes, treats the temporal as though it were eternal.