Gospel songwriters have been accused of writing songs mainly about two topics: getting saved and going to heaven. To that I would have to plead guilty. The reason for that is that once a person finds a valid answer to the big questions, "Why am I here?" “Where have I been?” and "Where am I going?" the rest of life can be lived with meaning and direction. The daily stuff that tends to be in our faces can gain some perspective. The great songs encourage that. Take for instance Wm. B. Stevens’s song:
Farther along, we'll know all about it
Farther along, well understand why.
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine,
We'll understand it all by and by.*Or Stuart Hamblem’s “Until Then”:
But, until then, my heart will go on singing;
Until then with joy I'll carry on!
Until the day my eyes behold the city,
Until the day God calls me home.**
I love the book of James because it is so practical. James’s letter reminds us how fragile and precious life is, how much we don’t know, and how we need to depend on the light of the Lord for each step.
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. (James 4:13-14)
History informs the present and helps us make wise decisions for the future. Someone has said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result.” We all want to live the best life we can while we have this wisp of time. We need to study the past so we can make wiser decisions for the future and not make the same mistakes.
When the big issues of life are settled, we can live the rest of life. We can live like we’ve got “nothin’ to lose”.
But what would that look like today, if we knew this was close to our last day? Where would I wish I had taken my family if I knew I “was leavin’ today”? What letter would I write? What would I do with my bank account or my time schedule or the energy I have today?
Whom would I invite to dinner; to whom would I offer the guest room or a ride to church or a trip to the grocery store? Whom would I take on a fishing trip or a shopping trip or a cruise? Where would I volunteer my skills, my expertise, my hours, my knowledge, if I knew time was running out.
The beauty of the Christ-centered life is that we do know that time on this earth is limited and that nothing else except the relationships we treasure and nurture will survive this life or time itself. We also know that beyond time there is more--much more—and the quality of that “more” depends on the soul investment we make today.
The greatest decision we can make in the present is to follow the One who invented time and gave us a piece of it. Only He can whisper wisdom for each day we have, and He will teach us to see the “eternity” in the moment, and to give ourselves away for things that last forever.
* P.D. usually credited to Wm. B. Stevens
** Copyright ©1958 by Hamblen Music Co. used by permission
