Something with which I have been struggling is whether I am living my life urgent enough. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older or because I’m gaining more clarity on my mission here on earth, but I have a constant suspicion my life is not being lived urgent enough. The fact is our lives are finite. They are going to end. Most of us probably do not have as much time remaining as we think we do. I know this because few of us think about the end of our lives in a meaningful way.
As long as we are healthy, we tend to always think there will be a tomorrow, next week, and next year. Those who learn they only have weeks or months to live tend to live their lives differently; they live with an urgency about them. The rest of us? We take life as it comes, always planning for a tomorrow that may never arrive.
The struggle I have is how far to take the urgency. Taken to the extreme, we would have little time for simple pleasures and entertainment. After all, we are running out of time. We will die or Jesus will come back, but sooner than we think, our opportunities to build God’s Kingdom here on earth are going to run out. My thoughts tend towards dismissing most of what this world has to offer in favor of enjoying them in their perfect state on the other side of this life. That would lead to a very stoic life that, for anyone looking in from the outside, would seem to be void of happiness. Still, I think such a life would be a small price to pay in exchange for an eternity of joy in His presence.
I began thinking about this as I watched a football game on a recent Sunday. As I watched, I considered how meaningless it all was. What was the purpose of surrendering three hours of my ever-diminishing time rooting for a team full of people that don’t know I exist and would be fine if I watched or not? There were so many more positive and Kingdom-building things I could be doing at that moment, yet I sat alone on my couch whiling away the day. I don’t think that’s what Christ had in mind when He called me to follow Him. I struggle to think such activities result in me living my life with the appropriate urgency.
That’s one example and I admit I haven’t reconciled the validity of my own thoughts around it. I’m certainly not condemning anyone for watching a sporting event on television. What I am questioning is whether we are living our lives urgent enough. Are we putting Jesus first in our lives or are we only paying lip service to His Lordship? I can’t answer the question for you. We all engage in activities we know do not further the Kingdom of God. I’d wager every one of us spends more time on entertainment and self-serving activities than we do serving Christ. I’m still working through what the right balance is, and if trying to find any sort of balance is only a rationalization for not spending every second of my life serving Jesus. I think deep down I already know the answer. I’m not living my life urgent enough. How about you?