I recently celebrated my 62nd birthday. I’m grateful for every year when I consider that so many are not as fortunate. The news headlines alone are a stark reminder of this. A shooting last week in Maine claims 18 lives as young as 14 years old. A hurricane in Mexico that formed with little warning claims another 27 lives. Each day in the U.S. 8,000 die from accidents or illness. Life is precious because it’s not guaranteed.

On my birthday I visited the grave of my grandson Brian, who died exactly one year earlier at the age of 21. As I walked around the cemetery, as I often do whenever I visit, I couldn’t help but notice how many markers bore the same birth year as mine. It reminded me that my number could be called at any time.

God alone knows how many years of life we are each assigned. Some make the mistake of basing their longevity on some high average number. If one is 30 years old and will live to be 90, you can say they are still young. But, if one is 30 and they will die by age 40, they are already old. Many younger people may actually be much older than they know!

In the end, the number of years we have isn’t as important as what we do with them. A lot of old people die having never truly lived, while many who die young lived a full and rich life. I think of former President Jimmy Carter who, in his 90s still built homes for Habitat for Humanity or Mother Teresa, who continued her work in Calcutta until her death at age 87.

Sadly, many who are like me don’t understand the importance and the urgency of making our days count until we are much older, and work overtime in an attempt to make up for wasted years, or to leave something of a legacy behind for our kids to build on. I wish I would have worked less and spent more time with my young family, attended more games, took more photos, weekend trips, family outings. I don’t want Cats in the Cradle to be my life’s song when my time is up.

But even more important is the fact that this 50-80 years on earth is but a grain of sand in the desert of eternity. We focus all of our time and energy on a lifetime that won’t even show up as a blip on the infinite timeline of forever. I’m not big on old time sayings, but one that I grew up hearing rings true:
Soon this life on earth will pass, only what’s done for God will last. Each year that I’m blessed with is another opportunity to make up for a year I wasted, another opportunity to tell someone how much I love them, another opportunity to help out someone less fortunate, another chance to be a friend to someone who is struggling, to brighten someone’s day, another opportunity to dance, to sing, to give, to laugh, to worship, just in case tomorrow never comes.