“I went to bed a young man and woke up an old man.” William Danny Mullins, Jr.
I’ll never forget those words spoken by my father in the latter years of his life. It was in that moment of vulnerability and transparency from my dad that I moved from son to fellow brother in Christ and man desiring to better live and love because of his example.
My strong father, my example of good and bad, of commitment and inconsistency, the man that God chose and assigned as my father was human. He was a godly man, seeking righteousness and understanding.
It was in that moment that I saw my father as a little boy. As a young man. As a husband, father, brother, uncle, Christian man striving. I am so grateful that God gifted me those few short years of knowing my dad at a deeper level, taking me from the immature judgement and anger of a child to the acknowledgment, love and respect of a man, to a man, gifted me by my Father in Heaven. My dad.
I so vividly remember watching my father in his last days showing a determination to live and love with greater purpose than I ever could have imagined. He taught me that time is precious and relationships worth the effort. I watched as my dad would struggle to dress, carry himself to his truck, cleverly lift his broken body wracked by decades of incessant strokes that rendered the left side of his body dead, make his way to things that were important. His family. To his church for beautiful fellowship and life-giving encouragement and love that no one other than fellow Believers can understand. To Kroger’s for his daily walks and stops of encouragement, gifts of love through time and genuine interest and Bibles to the employees. Who, in that moment could not comprehend the gift of the broken, old man standing before them with a heart yearning for them to know the Jesus that he knew.
Time is the most precious commodity that we have. We live in a time that discounts time. We live during times that minimizes the value of the wisdom that only time can instill. We approach time with a mentality of not enough time. We seek more time through technology, efficiency, faster, faster, faster. When all the while our Father in Heaven says that he has numbered our days in Psalm, Exodus, Job.
What time is this in your life? What is deserving of your precious time? In some ways I admire that King Hezekiah was given 15 more years of life and knew the specific clock countdown. Sadly, he did not use these years well. The question from the lesson is how will we use our days and years, however many we have left? Jesus lived 33 years, with 3 years of documented ministry and teaching. Scholars and theologians spend lifetimes seeking to understand what he planted in 3 short years. It truly is not the quantity but the quality of our time.
“If tomorrow never comes
Will she know how much I loved her
Did I try in every way to show her every day
That she’s my only one
And if my time on earth were through
And she must face this world without me
Is the love I gave her in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes”.
Poignant words written by Ronan Keating and so beautifully sung by Garth Brooks. Use well what is fleeting.
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT