The human life is a brief adventure. It is over in the blink of an eye. There are two options for us in the wake of this reality.

First, we can lament. We can bemoan our mortality. There is a type of lament that is tempered with truth – death is unnatural. Death is an interloper and we weren’t intended to have such a short duration on earth. It is truly sad that life is so brief.

Our other option is to rejoice. To adopt an eternal perspective. Our destiny is to live on a new earth, where righteousness dwells, and to dwell there forever. Our life is not threatened. We just have to move. We have to transfer from this earth to the next. And the next will be far better.

Meanwhile, we have an amazing opportunity here. We can say to ourselves: “if this life is but a breath, I am going to make the most of it.” In Scripture, the laments about the brevity of life are also invitations. They invite the perspective of humility before the Divine and a call to make the most of the choices before us. 

Jesus will physically dwell alongside us in the new earth. Hope will be fulfilled. Faith will become sight. In this life, we have the amazing, one time opportunity to know him by faith. 

The human life is a wild adventure. It is the prologue for a story that stretches beyond this world. We cannot add days to our life by worrying. We cannot solve the mysteries beyond our grasp. What we can do is spend each valuable day in the presence of God, making the most of the adventure.

“As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away.”
– Psalm 90:10