The Ultimate Deadline

My father died recently.

Death is final and irrevocable, and the finality of death overwhelms me. There are no rewinds or do-overs.

This thought is sobering. How many things take up our time and energy that are not important or eternal? How many things have I left undone . . . until it was too late? Death has intervened and the opportunity has been lost forever.

The Apostle Paul was bright, energetic, educated, and focused, but in his later life, he understood that he had been living his own plan. He had been like a builder who used his skill and efforts to build a large cathedral for God. However, without realizing it, he built a cathedral to himself and not to God. With all his heart, he wished to honor Him, but all his efforts were rooted in his own ideas of what God wanted and were accomplished through his own strength and intellect. It took a miracle to allow him to see his error and change his direction. Later, he told the Philippian church:

7 But these [things I accomplished, that I thought were] assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. 8 More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. 10 My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 14 with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways. (Phil 3:7-15 New ESV)

The value of knowing Jesus, personally and intimately, is so much greater than anything else. I have come to see all other things that compete for our time and energy are more than just wasted time, they are liabilities. They detract from all that we should be doing. Like Paul, we need to focus with laser-like intensity on the things of God, while there is yet time. Time is limited. At some point, time will run out. Death is permanent and irrevocable. Work while it is day. Work while you have breath and ability.

You may think that you are working for God, doing things that you think He would like. But are you really seeking God’s will and then doing it with your whole heart, to the point that all other plans and purposes are left behind? Everything else will be burned up. The only accomplishments that will remain are those rooted totally in Jesus and His kingdom.

Don’t wait until it is too late.

• Ask God to help you, and then keep asking. All things begin with prayer.
• Believe that He is faithful and will answer your prayer.
• Lay aside all other things. They are not really important.
• Build with God’s direction and His strength. Rely on Him for everything. When you see yourself trusting in your own intelligence, experience, or strength, repent and seek Him.

As we always say "Go and Flow." An adventure awaits you!