As a 23-year-old Marine in Vietnam, the days couldn’t pass by fast enough. The calendar would circulate around to all the troops, and we’d each check off our days—from 365 all the way down to 1. When the countdown hit zero, we could return home.
Now, looking back on those days and that calendar, I realize more and more that it was no way to live—constantly looking ahead to the next day, the next week, the next month. My situation of being at war was obviously abnormal, but the same approach to life is all too common. How many of us are stuck in a rut like that? We wake up, go to work, shuffle back home, only to do it all again the next day. Sure, we get excited looking forward to the next “big thing” that comes around every once in a while, but far too many days in between feel wasted. We’re all just passing the time that God has given us here on earth.
If I had a megaphone and the ears of everyone in this world, I’d yell, “God wants us to wake up, people!”
As each year comes to a close, I’m reminded that we’ve all been given a certain amount of time on this earth. Only our all-knowing and all-powerful Creator knows how much time is left on our life’s game clock. In a sporting event, both teams know how much time is left and will often start desperately playing with a sense of urgency as the clock is winding down. In life, we have no idea how much time is left, so I think we should all be “playing” with that same sense of urgency. Let’s be determined to make sure we enjoy God’s blessings and use the time we have to love the people He’s put in our lives and make an impact for Him. Rather than waiting for each day and minute to pass, always looking forward to something ahead on the calendar, let’s fill our days and minutes with memories that will last and embrace each moment we’ve been given.
I often visualize life as one lap around a giant track. For many of us, including myself, we know we’re coming down the home stretch. I don’t know about you, but I fully intend to make the home stretch of my race of life the greatest part of it all, as I run all out to burst through the tape at the finish line.
It might sound cliché, but I really believe that each and every day should be treated like our last. Let’s encourage one another in our own race of life to continue to share the faith, live it out, and look forward to the victorious celebration of life we’ll have one day with Christ.
As this year comes to a close, we praise God for another fruitful year of ministry. He continues to amaze us all with His hand of blessing, but we won’t rest on the great things we’ve done. Just as our summer camp theme said, we’ll be “relentless” as we look forward to the coming days and years. He has called us to do even more in His name, and that starts anew in 2014.
Keep running the race until the end, so we can all celebrate as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Model the Master,
Les Steckel, FCA President/CEO
Originally Published: November 2013