When we consider our lives are just a short two-minute adventure, we can react in one of two ways. We can either do everything we can to cling to each passing moment. Or, we can make the most of each moment as a kinetic part of The Story of God and the celebration of his Kingdom.
Too often, we hitch our wagons to what is perishable. We try to make it last. To control how it begins, ends and feels along the way. Only to find our circumstances are like the “flower of grass”. It withers and falls away.
C.S. Lewis once remarked on the absurdity of many who spend their lives looking forward to reaching a certain age, only to spend the rest of their lives attempting to cling to the illusion of remaining that age (we can’t wait to “grow up” and then we obsessively reminisce about “the glory years”).
Each season of life passes to another, and has its own rewards and challenges. When we encounter this inevitable reality, we quickly try to find the next thing to hitch our wagon to. The next perishable thing must be THE thing, we suppose. We are obsessed with more, slaves to our circumstances, because we are trying so hard to stretch what is meant to be a usable resource to an eternal comfort item.
The passage of time is put into perspective by contemplating that which transcends time: the word of God.
Ironically, by shifting our perspective to trusting the enduring Word of God, we find that perishable things can be used for imperishable ends. Our effort and skills can be wasted on investing in the temporal. Or they can be full of purpose as tools for the advancement of God’s Eternal Kingdom.
“You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
– 1 Peter 1:24-25