The breath of Life

⁴ "LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is! ⁵ Behold, thou hast made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in thy sight. Surely every man stands as a mere breath! [Selah] ⁶ Surely man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nought are they in turmoil; man heaps up, and knows not who will gather! ⁷ "And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in thee. ⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions.

Psalms 39:4-8

This passage has become more and more meaningful the older I become. Life is so fleeting. This past month we celebrated the wedding of my daughter and the graduation and move of my son. And though they have been out of the house for years, there is something about the empty nest that resonates when I think about how quickly the child rearing years flew by. A person's time on this earth is like a shadow. So how does one leave a legacy? It is not by the "heaping up" of stuff. Job said it best in the first chapter at verse 21:

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."

Jesus told his disciples that a man's life did not consist of the abundance of one's possessions. The writer of the above passage got it right. "My hope is in thee". There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Only by faith in the redeeming act of the Son do we have the ability to have hope of the eternal. The only legacy we leave behind are the actions of what we do for others. I hope that these words might inspire someone in the future long after I am gone. The message of the world to "eat, drink and be happy" is a lie. Only when we discover the true meaning of sacrificial love do we get to take something with us into eternity. Learning to give of oneself is the secret to discovering blessings from above.