The catchphrase “Don’t Waste your Life” is a brainchild of Pastor John Piper that has resoundedthroughout the Christian world. This article is an outgrowth of that voice. The very title is emphatic to convey to the readers that life is not to be wasted or spent in a trifling adventure. The title is a thought worth pondering by all who wants their life to count for something significant. Sad to say, but we are all wasting our life in one way or the other so the key thing to ask here is, “Are we wasting it in the right areas and for the right reasons.”Life is too short to be wasted on trivial things. Hence, we should be actingand stepping into those dreams to make our existencehere on earth a meaningful one.In fact, our life here on earth is not more than 70-80 years on an average basis. Statistics claim that if you have been sleeping eight hoursin a night and live for 75 years, that’s 25 years asleep (9,125 days). That’s amazing! Now,minus the rest of 50 years with your time for leisure, watching TV, chit-chats, browsing, eating food and daily ablutions and so forth; that will cut 6-7 years on petty things. Now for the rest of theother years, where should it be invested in?The ball isin your court for you to answer that. Abraham Lincoln once stated, “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” It is true that you don’t have to live long to make a significant impact upon your generation. Far more important than how long you live is the depth and fullness of your life; it would be much better to die young with a radical commitment for a noble cause than to die aged in mediocrity and futility.
None of us is going to live forever in this world. The Bible gives a clear description of the shortness of life through poignant metaphors: vapour, mist, flower, grass, wind, breath, a shadow, water spilled to the ground, a journey, and so on. God says that our days are all numbered and determined and we can’t exceed even a minute more. But one should be certain that the earth is not all to our existence. Jesus talks about the parable of a rich man who said to himself, “This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods and says, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat drink and be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”This illustrates the very fabric of worldly materialistic people who are only accumulating and building their empires on this earth. They are so engrossed and occupied with the earthly possessions, blinded to value mammon more than mankind. Therefore, God warns that such perception will incur serious judgments and punishment. They have the viewpoint that life on earth is all there is to it. But this is not so. Notice the man in the parable was not mindful that the life-given by God was on lease including all the material stuffs that he amassed and he failed to acknowledge God in the making. As rightly stated by C.S. Lewis in one of his book, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in; Aim at earth and you get neither.” Only the convictionof eternity in human’s heart will flush out the trivial temporariness of this world.
I want to pose some solemn questions before your heart and eyes today, “What is your life’s goal 10 years from now? Is there a noble cause that you are willing to live anddie for? What significant impact do you want to see in your own generation? What legacy do you want to leave behind? Most importantly, are you living your life in the light of eternal dividends? Will you hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant?” Can you utter this line before stepping into eternity? “For your tomorrow,we gave our today.”
Vebu Khamo
Kohima Bible College.
